Casey County fends off late rally by Pikeville to advance in girls’ Sweet 16
After holding a comfortable halftime lead, Casey County clung to the slimmest of margins — one point — with the ball in hand and 19 seconds to play against Pikeville in the first round of the Mingua Beef Jerky/KHSAA Girls’ Sweet 16.
Lauren Lee stepped to the free-throw line, calmly sunk both, and the Rebels forced a long look from three-point range that fell short to exit Rupp Arena with a 49-46 win Wednesday.
The arc is from where the Rebels left their mark on the 15th Region champions: they shot 7-for-18 to Pikeville’s 2-for-3 clip, getting three from Gena Cravens and two each from Lee and Jordyn Stephens.
“I haven’t made a three in three games, so making three on this floor was very nice,” Cravens said with a grin.
Cravens’ last long-range make came with 6:01 to play and pushed Casey County’s lead to 43-34. Pikeville proceeded over the next two and a half minutes to score eight unanswered to pull within a basket, and stayed within a possession the rest of the way.
The Rebels led by as many as 12 points and were up 10 at halftime. Up 45-44 with 3:03 left, they managed to milk nearly two minutes off the clock before Pikeville stole the ball, resulting in a missed shot. Casey then shaved about 30 more seconds off the clock before Stephens went to the line and made two freebies. Panthers eighth-grader Trinity Rowe, who had 14 points and seven assists, answered with two free throws prior to Lee’s game-clinching shots near the end.
A Pikeville three-pointer would have forced overtime. That was the worse of two evils presented to Casey County.
“It was honestly a little crazy,” Lee said. “What was going through my head wasn’t really, ‘We have to play lock-down ‘D.’ It was more like, ‘We can’t let ’em shoot a three,’ cause that’s what they were looking for and that’s what they needed to tie it.”
Pikeville senior Kelsey Jo Tackett received a pass from Rowe and launched a prayer with about a second remaining. She collapsed to the floor immediately after and was helped up by Rowe; their embrace lasted into the post-game handshake line.
“I wanted it for my teammates,” Tackett said through tears. “ ... I just wanted it for my teammates.”
Pikeville’s unrewarded rally was Casey County’s sigh of relief. A group of seven seniors who the last two years have had their seasons ended in the 12th Region tournament by the eventual state champ (Mercer County) and state runner-up (Southwestern) weathered a storm and will get to keep plowing ahead.
“We’re a much better team, I feel like, than what we displayed tonight,” Rebels Coach Tara Weddle said. “The first game and this big stage and this environment, that kind of shook us up a bit. Hopefully from this point on we’ve got our nerves about us and we’ve got our wits about us a little bit better.”
This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 9:49 PM.
