‘It haunted these kids.’ Last year’s heart-breaker fuels return to region throne.
There was no doubt the two best teams in the 11th Region took the floor Friday night at Eastern Kentucky University’s Alumni Coliseum.
Franklin County and Scott County entered the 11th Region championship game with a combined 34-0 record against their fellow schools in the region. It was the Flyers, motivated by self-inflicted heartbreak one year ago, who left with a still-perfect mark following a 57-53 victory.
It wasn’t easy to get there — the outcome was in doubt right down to the final seconds — but Franklin County secured its first trip to the Mingua Beef Jerky/KHSAA Girls’ Sweet Sixteen since 2017.
“This has been what I would call a not-smooth ride this year,” Flyers Coach Joey Thacker said. “We’re so young, we’re so inconsistent.”
Scott County’s two-year reign atop the region was stifled by a second straight lackluster shooting performance — 32.2 percent from the floor — but the Cardinals stayed within striking distance down the stretch thanks to Franklin County’s woes at the free-throw line. The Flyers shot 18-for-33 from the stripe (54.5%), the bulk of the misses coming off the hand of star junior Brooklynn Miles, who finished 12-for-22 overall.
Franklin County led by eight, 53-45, before Miles missed the second of two free throws with just under a minute to play. Morehead State signee Morgan DeFoor hit a long three-pointer for Scott County, Miles went 1-for-2 at the line again, and DeFoor came back down and banked another long three-point shot to cut the Flyers’ lead to 54-51 with 26.2 seconds left.
Miles again went 1-for-2 and 11th Region Player of the Year Malea Williams responded with a putback jumper for Scott County to pull it within 55-53. Miles went to the line again with 7.2 seconds left and sunk both to effectively seal the deal; another long trey by DeFoor bounced off the rim’s weak side as time expired.
The 2017 visit was Franklin County’s last of a three-year stretch that featured two trips to the state finals, both ending in defeat. Thacker said neither of those losses hurt as much as last year’s 46-45 decision to Scott County in the semifinal round of the region tournament. That game, too, was decided at the charity stripe: Cardinals senior Juliette Smith was fouled with 1.1 seconds left in a tie game and made the deciding freebie.
“It haunted me,” Thacker said. “It haunted these kids. We’ve talked about it. I would text them a picture of that scoreboard every 15 minutes for the last two days.”
Miles ended with a game-high 20 points, six assists, three rebounds and a steal. As the game morphed down the stretch into a duel between her free-throw skills and DeFoor’s long-range shooting, she was nervous, “but I knew I had it.”
“I’m on cloud nine right now,” Miles said. “It feels so great.”
Scott County never led after taking a 25-24 edge on a three-pointer by Kennon Owens with about 2:30 left in the first half. The Flyers took the lead for good seconds later on a jumper by Leshauvion Kennedy, who along with Jazmin Chambers helped Franklin County maintain a lead into the locker room despite Miles getting benched with two fouls with 3:59 left in the half.
“We’re so used to her on the court, so we had to just play as a team and hustle,” Chambers said. “She’s our team, basically, so it helps us for real. Sometimes we’re worried, but we got it.”
Scott County was the highest-ranked 11th Region team in the KHSAA’s RPI, slightly ahead of the Flyers, but saw its season end at 28-7. The Cardinals, who lost some players from last year’s region titlist to graduation and the opening of Great Crossing High School, had won 20 of their last 21 games.
Their inability to get a consistent or extensive advantage doomed them.
“We kind of had a notion that if they had a lead, they were gonna spread it on us, and they did,” Scott County Coach Scott Helton said. “We missed a lot of shots early in the paint. We missed a lot of shots late in the paint. If we’re up, the dynamics of the game could have been changed somewhat.
“I’m tired. It just seems like we kept running against the wind and swimming against the stream all season long, and tonight we didn’t click.”
Future Wildcat?
The girls’ Sweet Sixteen for the second straight year will be played in Rupp Arena. That’s the second home of the University of Kentucky women’s basketball program, one of several colleges that has offered Miles.
She plans to pick a school after her final AAU season this summer. The Wildcats seem to be in good standing.
“I definitely like Kentucky,” said Miles, who took an unofficial visit there during Big Blue Madness in October. “… They definitely want me there. I like the love I get from them a lot.”
This story was originally published March 6, 2020 at 10:37 PM.
