‘It’s special.’ Anderson County gives loyal fans plenty to cheer about in opener.
To quantify how good Anderson County’s performance was in the first round of the Mingua Beef Jerky/KHSAA Girls’ Sweet 16 on Wednesday night, consider the following:
In the first half, its opponent, Southwestern, shot 52.9 percent from the field, including making four out of seven three-point tries, and committed only nine turnovers.
Yet, Southwestern trailed at halftime by 14 points.
Perhaps buoyed by their raucous fans among the 1,941 in Rupp Arena, the largest crowd of the day, Anderson County used a big second quarter and a balanced scoring effort to beat Southwestern 78-67 and advance to Friday’s quarterfinals.
“To see our community after the last 12 months — everything that’s happened — to be able to come back to this place … and have this kind of response is special to these young ladies,” Anderson Coach Clay Birdwhistell said. “It’s special to our coaching staff, and it says a lot about our community.”
Even under all the COVID-19 restrictions, Anderson has enjoyed substantial fan support.
“They’ve always shown out,” Sophie Smith said of their fans, which Wednesday included a sizable student section. “It just feels so good to run out on the court and see all the red in the stands cheering us on.”
The Warriors matched the Bearcats shot-for-shot through an electrifying first period.
But Southwestern’s point guard and leading scorer, Alexa Smiddy, picked up her third foul just over a minute into the second period. The score was tied 16-16. As Smiddy took a seat on the bench, Anderson County pounced with a 21-7 run to close out the half. Built on Warriors turnovers, the damage came from everywhere.
Rachel Satterly, Smith and Tiffani Riley all made three-pointers along the way, and the Bearcats crashed the offensive boards for putbacks of their misses. When Amiya Jenkins grabbed her sixth offensive rebound of the half and put it back in despite a foul and cashed in the bonus free throw, Anderson County led 33-19 in a game that was tied five minutes and 37 seconds earlier.
“What she’s able to do for our team is second to none,” Birdwhistell said of Jenkins, a junior. “I just told her during a timeout, ‘We need you to go get rebounds.’ And she went and got all of them.”
Jenkins finished with a game-high 24 points, 11 rebounds, three steals and a block. She made 12 of 15 free throws. Riley scored 16, Smith, 15 and Satterly, 14 for the Bearcats.
Through the second half, Southwestern stayed within striking distance, but could never narrow the lead closer than seven points. Anderson led by as many as 18 points in the fourth quarter.
“My kids … they left it all out there on the floor. …” Southwestern Coach Junior Molden said. “I don’t know how this tournament is going to turn out, but I don’t know how (Anderson) lost a game this season. They are that talented.”
Alexa and Ayden Smiddy each scored 12 points for the Warriors. Marissa Loveless added 11.
Anderson County faces Franklin County in Friday’s 2 p.m. quarterfinal. Anderson came from behind to win a Sweet 16 game last year against Franklin County, 40-37. At the start of this season, then No. 2 Anderson knocked off then No. 1 Franklin County in a stunning 64-32 rout that sent the Flyers tumbling out of the media rankings.
“For us, it doesn’t matter who we play. We’ve worked for a long time to have this opportunity,” Birdwhistell said. “Franklin County’s going to offer a lot of different challenges. It’s a very different team than the one we just played, so we’ll have to adjust.”
