Bullitt East finally gets first Sweet 16 win after decades of knocking on the door
Since it opened in 1980, Bullitt East High School has reached the girls’ basketball state tournament three times. It had never won a game before Wednesday.
The Chargers finally got in the right column with a 66-55 decision over Elizabethtown in the first round of the 2020 Mingua Beef Jerky/KHSAA Girls’ Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena.
BOX SCORE: Bullitt East 66, Elizabethtown 55
“We have always had a great tradition,” Chargers Coach Chris Stallings said. “Our community supports us. We work hard, and we just haven’t been able to get to this stage enough for whatever reason.”
That’s not an understatement. Despite frequently trotting out teams worthy of top-10 rankings and even boasting a Miss Basketball winner — 2017 victor Lindsey Duvall, now a Louisville Cardinal — Bullitt East has made it to state only once in Stallings’ tenure, 16 years ago in 2004. That year, as the 8th Region champ, it fell to Butler, a perennial contender for the state title with whom it would soon thereafter begin sharing a region. The Chargers failed to get out of the 6th Region — one of two Louisville-area regions renowned for girls’ hoops — until this season.
Their reward for that achievement was a date with another blue blood, Elizabethtown, and early on the Chargers looked long for the challenge. They missed their first four field-goal attempts and trailed by six, 14-8, after one quarter.
Bullitt East found its spark and then some: It outscored the Panthers 18-0 for the first 7 1/2 minutes of the second quarter to build a double-digit lead. Five points by Kayra Freeman — a three-pointer and a layup off a turnover — kept a goose egg off the scoreboard for E-town in the period.
The Chargers’ lead swelled to 15 points twice in the third quarter and stayed in double digits into the fourth before E-town mounted a rally. A 13-5 run pulled the Panthers within 53-49 with 2:59 to play but they wouldn’t get closer; a 6-0 answer by Bullitt East put it back up by 10 and allowed it to ice things at the free-throw line.
Bullitt East held Elizabethtown to 32.7 percent shooting from the floor and 26.3 percent from behind the three-point line, while shooting 40.5 percent and 33.3 percent itself.
“We really prepped well, especially yesterday,” Stallings said. “We were locked in yesterday.”
Lexi Taylor, who will play at Georgetown College next year, finished with a game-high 28 points and a team-high 10 rebounds. She was 14-of-15 at the free-throw line. Emma Egan and Gracie Merkle, who came off the bench, each finished with 10 points.
“I think a lot of people found out we’re a deep team,” Stallings said. “And we rely on each other. I’m proud of ’em.”
Bullitt East will face Ryle, last year’s state champion, in Friday’s quarterfinals at noon.
This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 4:34 PM.
