South Laurel caps Sweet 16 experience with unforgettable win before tournament gets suspended
If this was to be the last game of their season and the last game of the Mingua Beef Jerky/KHSAA Girls’ Sweet 16, South Laurel made it one they’ll never forget.
Playing a team that humbled them with a 24-point loss at the beginning of January, the Cardinals hit five three pointers in the third quarter, including three on consecutive possessions to start the half, and held on for the 58-57 victory and a spot in the tournament quarterfinals should they resume.
The Kentucky High School Athletic Association suspended the tournament indefinitely at the conclusion of Thursday’s opening game on advice from the Centers of Disease Control and the governor regarding the global coronavirus pandemic. Next week’s Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Boys’ Sweet 16 is also on hold.
But there was no taking away the feeling about this win for South Laurel.
“For them to get to this stage and do what they did tonight is nothing short of incredible,” Cardinals Coach Chris Souder said. “We knocked down big shot after big shot and got the rebounds we needed to. What a win for our program.”
A game after their 74-50 defeat on Jan. 4 at the hands of the Valkyries, Ally Collett, one of South Laurel’s two Miss Basketball candidates, went down with a partial PCL tear in her right knee. Her first diagnosis indicated her season was over. She got a second opinion.
“They told me if I work really hard, I could be back in possibly six weeks,” Collett said. “I went to PT Pros day after day for like hours and I ended up missing four weeks.”
And while the news was devastating at the time, Collett and her teammates said the ordeal helped bring the team closer together.
“And I was praying every night for something to happen to our team to click because every single year since I’ve been in the eighth grade, we’ve lost in the semifinals of region,” she said.
Fellow 13th Region player of the year Amerah Steele agreed.
“When Ally came back, I felt like all of us came back with a different mindset, valuing the game better,” Steele said.
It was Steele who hit the last two of three consecutive three-points in the second half that turned a 29-26 halftime deficit into a 35-29 lead in under three minutes. Rachel Presley and Clara Collins hit two more and Collett capped the 17-6 run with a three-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer to push the lead to 43-35.
Sacred Heart, a team that had been a computer rankings and Associated Press poll No. 1 for most of the year, scrambled back into the game after falling behind by as much as 11 in the fourth quarter. Kristen Clemons and Triniti Raltson combined for 11 points to South Laurel’s one to trim the deficit to 54-43 with 1:58 to play.
But down the stretch, the Cardinals hit just enough free throws and forced just enough Sacred Heart misses to seal the win. Steele led the Cardinals with 20 points, followed by Collette’s 12 and Sydnie Hall’s 11. Erin Toller led three players in double figures for Sacred Heart with 16 points.
The KHSAA said Thursday it couldn’t speculate when the tournament could resume, but officials didn’t want it to be canceled entirely. Neither did the Cardinals.
“I hope it’s not our last game,” Souder said. “These kids deserve it. But on the other hand I understand it’s about more than basketball. We’ll leave that to the KHSAA to make those decisions. I trust they have the student athletes safety in mind first.”
This story was originally published March 12, 2020 at 5:15 PM.
