Sixteen things to get you ready for the 2021 Girls’ Sweet 16
The 2021 Mingua Beef Jerky/KHSAA Girls’ Sweet 16 begins Wednesday as teams from around the state will square off to see who will be the first state champion in two years after last year’s tournament was abruptly halted five games in.
While attendance limits for the Boys’ Sweet 16 last week meant smaller crowds at Rupp Arena, there remained plenty of seats available even under COVID-19 restrictions, and that will be the case for this week’s event, as well.
Here are 16 things to think about as Kentucky high school girls’ basketball’s state tournament returns:
1. Recaptured glory. In all, there are 10 Sweet 16 teams who earned their way back to Rupp Arena after having the tournament canceled in progress last year due to the pandemic.
Anderson County, Bowling Green, Bullitt East, Franklin County, Henderson County, Marshall County, Pikeville, Russell, Sacred Heart and South Laurel defended their region titles and have a chance to pay another tribute to their graduated seniors who lost the experience. Of those, only Marshall County had no seniors on its playing roster.
During the boys’ tournament, the KHSAA honored each of the 2020 Sweet 16 schools with an announcement and display of their team photo on the big screens. Expect the same for the girls this week.
2. Miss Basketball candidates. Four Miss Basketball candidates, who were their respective region players of the year as voted on by the Kentucky Basketball Coaches Association, will be in action this week.
▪ Franklin County’s Brooklynn Miles might be the most high profile of them as a Tennessee commit.
▪ Henderson County’s Sadie Wurth averages 13.6 points per game.
▪ Bethlehem’s Ella Thompson leads the Banshees in scoring (17.6 points) and rebounding (9.7) and became the program’s all-time leading scorer last month.
▪ And Marshall County’s Cayson Connor spearheads her team’s attack with 13.1 points per game. She also excels on the softball diamond where she hit .388 as a sophomore.
3. Standout juniors. Next year’s potential Miss Basketball candidate class is loaded with Sweet 16 players. Anderson County’s Amiya Jenkins, Bullitt East’s Gracie Merkle, Marshall County’s Halle Langhi, Dixie Heights’ Madelyn Lawson, South Laurel’s Rachel Presley, Franklin County’s Patience Laster, Bowling Green’s LynKaylah James, Apollo’s Amaya Curry, Southwestern’s Kaylee Young and more will have a chance to put markers down for next year’s honors with the whole Kentucky girls’ high school basketball world watching.
4. Others to watch. Pikeville’s Trinity Rowe dazzled the Rupp Arena crowd as an eighth-grader last season with 14 points and seven assists despite a first-round loss. She’s back with the Panthers this year. Sacred Heart sophomore Triniti Ralston leads the Valkyries in scoring. Bowling Green’s Meadow Tisdale is the sister of Kentucky football player Vito Tisdale and leads the Purples in rebounding. And Marshall County’s Sophie Galloway is a multiple state champion and record holder in track and field who has committed to compete in that sport for Tennessee.
5. Rankings hold up. Five teams in the Herald-Leader preseason top 10 and another five in the top 25 are here in Lexington this week. A survey of coaches had the rankings as follows: No. 2 Franklin County, No. 3 Anderson County, No. 5 Bethlehem, No. 6 Sacred Heart, No. 7 South Laurel, No. 12 Bullitt East, No. 13 Bowling Green, No. 17 Marshal County, No. 18 Russell and No. 23 Henderson County.
6. New Heights. Dixie Heights has made the Sweet 16 only one other time and could be considered a major surprise to be here over 2019 state champion Ryle who marched up the media rankings all season before falling to Notre Dame in the 9th Region semis. The Colonels then knocked off the Pandas 45-43 in overtime of the region finals. They come into the tournament on a 21-game win streak, the longest of any team here.
7. The overdogs. The latest Dave Cantrall Ratings released for the tournament have Bethlehem No. 1 with 86.6 ratings points. Then comes No. 2 Anderson County at 86.5. That’s a pretty slim nod. And consider that Anderson County beat Bethlehem 57-56 in their regular-season meeting back on Feb. 4.
If you’re among those who wish the Sweet 16s were seeded, there’s good news: Bethlehem and Anderson County can’t meet until the finals if they get there.
8. The underdogs. Just as its boys’ team was a week ago, Knott County Central comes into Rupp Arena as the lowest-rated team in the girls’ tournament at 66.3 and plays in the first game of the event.
But the Lady Patriots don’t have to fend off a No. 2-rated team like the other Patriots did against eventual boys’ finalist Elizabethtown. Instead, they get … No. 7 Sacred Heart, a four-time state champion. The 14th Region hasn’t advanced past the first round of the girls’ tournament since Breathitt County did it in 2008.
9. The Double. No. 1 Bethlehem could make history as the first team since Lexington Christian in 2008 to win both the All “A” Classic and the Girls’ Sweet 16 in a season. Hazard also accomplished the feat in 2004. The Banshees have won the midseason small-school state tournament two years in a row.
10. Left home. Some big-name girls’ programs got upset in their region tournaments last month. Herald-Leader preseason No. 1 Butler fell to Bullitt East in the 6th Region finals. H-L No. 4 Ryle was the last school to hoist a girls’ state crown in 2019. Russell topped a highly ranked Boyd County team and Bishop Brossart ended Clark County’s run of four straight 10th Region titles.
11. Past champions. The field includes two past champions. Marshall County won it all in 1982 and 1984 under head coach Howard Beth, the father of current coach Aaron Beth. Sacred Heart has four state titles, with three straight coming from 2002 to 2004 under current Coach Donna Moir. Marshall County has made 24 appearances in the Sweet 16, the most of any team in the field.
12. Newbies. The fewest Sweet 16 appearances belong to Bethlehem, Bishop Brossart and Southwestern with two each.
13. Stat stuffers. With three-pointers having played such a large factor in the boys’ tournament last week, a glance at the girls’ statistics shows Anderson County with the most three-point tries in the field with 200 makes on 582 shots for 34.4 percent. South Laurel, Dixie Heights, Pikeville and Southwestern also rank in the top 10 in three-point shot attempts and the latter three all shoot better than 37 percent from deep.
Marshall County plays the stingiest defense at 33.9 points against per game, tops in the state. Bethlehem ranked No. 4 in scoring with 68.7 points per game. Anderson County was second in the state in scoring margin with a spread of 26.2 points per game.
Among player statistics. Gracie Merkle, Bullitt East’s 6-foot-6 center (yes, 6-6), leads the state in field goal percentage with a ridiculous 75.8 percent mark — 169 makes on 223 attempts. Marshall County’s Jada Driver makes 44.7 percent of her three-point attempts, No. 2 in the state and tops in the field.
14. Competitive balance. On paper, Wednesday’s and Thursday’s games could go to anyone. Sizing them up by Cantrall Ratings, all but the Sacred Heart-Knott Central game will be between teams fewer than than 10 ratings points apart. And the top teams, No. 1 Bethlehem, No. 2 Anderson County, No. 3 Bullitt East and No. 4 Dixie Heights all face opponents within five ratings points in the first round.
Here’s how the matchups look with Cantrall Ratings.
▪ 1. Bethlehem 86.6 vs. 3. Bullitt East 84.8
▪ 2. Anderson County 86.5 vs. 8. Southwestern 82.0
▪ 4. Dixie Heights 84.6 vs. 9. Russell 81.2
▪ 5. Marshall County 84.0 vs. 11. Pikeville 78.6
▪ 6. Henderson County 82.9 vs. 14. Apollo 76.6
▪ 7. Sacred Heart 82.7 vs. 16. Knott Central 66.3
▪ 10. Bowling Green 78.9 vs. 13. Bishop Brossart 77.2
▪ 11. Franklin County 78.6 vs. 15. South Laurel 73.3
What’s all this mean? Well, ratings offer some clues to who can do what, but certainly are not something that will show who will win. State champion Highlands was rated No. 3 in last week’s Boys’ Sweet 16 field. Clark County’s No. 10 boys’ team defeated No. 5 Oldham County in the first round. And No. 9 Ashland Blazer reached the semifinals.
16. Toughest schedule. Bethlehem took on all comers this year and faced five tournament teams in the regular season, beating Marshall County, Bowling Green, Apollo and Southwestern and losing to Anderson County. Franklin County might have had the worst go pandemic-wise with the team missing games from Jan. 23 through Feb. 20 over COVID-19 concerns.
16. Toughest draw. Bethlehem also arguably has the toughest draw by having to play No. 3 Bullitt East, the 6th Region champion, in the first round. Then would come a potential quarterfinal matchup with No. 5 Marshall County and a semifinals pairing possible with No. 4 Dixie Heights.
Girls’ Sweet 16
What: Sixteen-team tournament to decide Kentucky’s high school basketball state champion
When: Wednesday through Saturday
Where: Rupp Arena
Tickets: Tickets available for purchase at KHSAA.org.
Girls’ Sweet 16 schedule
At Rupp Arena
Wednesday
11 a.m.: Knott County Central vs. Sacred Heart
2 p.m.: Bowling Green vs. Bishop Brossart
5 p.m.: Franklin County vs. South Laurel
8 p.m.: Anderson County vs. Southwestern
Thursday
11 a.m.: Pikeville vs. Marshall County
2 p.m.: Bethlehem vs. Bullitt East
5 p.m.: Henderson County vs. Apollo
8 p.m.: Dixie Heights vs. Russell
Friday
11 a.m., 2 p.m., 5 p.m., 8 p.m.: Quarterfinal games
Saturday
11 a.m., 2 p.m.: Semifinal games
8 p.m.: Championship game
This story was originally published April 6, 2021 at 7:24 AM.
