Defending All ‘A’ Classic champ lost a lot, but not its championship DNA
The defending girls’ All “A” Classic state champion looks quite different from a year ago, but winning is still in its DNA.
Murray in the final seconds came up with a turnover and turned it into a layup at the buzzer to open its title defense with a 56-54 win over Danville on Wednesday.
2019 GIRLS’ ALL “A” CLASSIC BRACKET
Angela Gierhart connected for the game-winning bucket moments after she and senior Parker Greer trapped Admirals star Ivy Turner at midcourt following a Danville inbound pass. Turner lost the ball, Greer came up with it, and Turner fouled to impede her progress. Greer inbounded to Calli Carver with about eight seconds left, who handed the ball off to Gierhart for the winning drive.
Elizabeth Curtis, the only other senior on Murray’s roster this season, connected on a game-tying three-pointer with 21 seconds left to answer an and-one layup and free-throw conversion by Turner, which also afforded the Tigers time to set up their game-changing denial.
Gierhart led Murray with 19 points and four assists. Greer had a double-double — 12 points, 12 boards — and Makenzie Turley had eight assists without a turnover.
Murray lost 74 percent of its scoring following the graduation of three stars — Macey Turley, Alexandria Mayes and Alexis Burpo — who now all play at least 20 minutes a game for Murray State University as freshmen. That trio helped the Tigers reach the past three KHSAA Sweet Sixteen tournaments; Murray’s season ended at the hands of the eventual state champion each year.
Murray Coach Wyatt Foust has been encouraged by the attitude of Curtis and Greer since the school’s most recent Sweet Sixteen defeat. Greer, who’s signed to play soccer at Murray State, is still a gym rat in her second sport. Curtis, a 30-percent shooter from three-point range as a junior, took to heart a plea from Foust to improve her marksmanship and extend her range; she now shoots 38 percent and leads the state in makes at 4.8 per game.
“I saw something in Lizzy and Parker that said, ‘Gosh, we don’t want to be the first seniors to just kind of let this thing go,’” Foust said. “We were like preseason third and fourth in our region and not a lot of people believed in them, and that kind of fueled us. We didn’t make a lot of noise about it but we just went to work every day.”
Murray, the All “A” Classic’s fourth-highest ranked team according to the Cantrall Ratings, will meet the top-rated team, Owensboro Catholic, in Friday’s quarterfinals. Danville was the second-highest rated team.
“We said, ‘After we go out and win this game against one of the best teams in it, we’re undoubtedly gonna be a contender here and we’re gonna show people we belong,’” Foust said.
Danville (16-4) had a five-game win streak snapped. Turner, who over the weekend picked up her first Division I offer from Presbyterian, finished with 21 points on 9-for-15 shooting, eight rebounds, seven assists, two steals and only one turnover — it just happened to come at an unfortunate moment.
“I wouldn’t have that ball in anybody’s hands but Ivy’s at the end of the game,” Danville Coach Judie Mason said. “If I had to do it a thousand times over, the ball’s gonna be in her hands. ... At the end of the game I had a freshman, an eighth-grader and two sophomores on the floor, and with a senior that’s pretty doggone good. Like I I told them, I love ’em and we’re not finished.”
This story was originally published January 23, 2019 at 3:46 PM.