‘I was most definitely hungry.’ Sweet 16 mainstay Henderson County makes its mark.
Henderson County is a fixture in the girls’ state basketball tournament, but its visits have often been short.
The Colonels, in the field for the eighth time over the last nine tournaments, defeated Apollo, 55-31, in the first round of the Mingua Beef Jerky/KHSAA Girls’ Sweet 16 on Thursday. It gave them their third win in that span and their the first since 2017, when they upended Knott County Central in the first round before a quarterfinal loss to Holmes. The Colonels never trailed en route to winning their 10th straight game of the season.
Apollo, in the field for the first time since 1997, finished it season 16-7.
Last year’s Boys’ Sweet 16 never tipped off, but five games were played in the girls’ edition before it was suspended, and eventually canceled, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Henderson County and its first-round opponent, Marshall County, were dressed to play for the second game of a Friday-morning session that would never be completed.
“I was most definitely hungry,” said Sadie Wurth, who scored 13 points and dished out five of the Colonels’ 19 assists on 22 makes. “This is my last year and I didn’t want to go out like last year. We didn’t even get to play, so this makes it even sweeter that we get to advance.”
The Colonels’ leading scorer from the 2020 squad, Emilee Hope, graduated — she was the River States Conference Newcomer of the Year at Oakland City — but they brought back their next three leading scorers and Jarie Thomas, who showed promise in spot minutes as a freshman.
A year later, Thomas is the team’s second-leading scorer (12.6 points per game), top rebounder (6.8) and its best shooter from the field (51.6%) and free-throw line (80.6%). She led the Colonels with 17 points and had five rebounds on Thursday.
“We knew last year all along that she was getting better and better,” Henderson County Coach Jeff Haile said. “(She) was doing a better job of getting to the glass and finishing around the basket. That’s something she hadn’t been doing. This year I’ve thought she’s finished well around the basket. Her hands have gotten better, her footwork’s gotten a little better, and when you’re improving all those things, you know, your game’s gonna be better.”
A coast-to-coast layup by Kaytlan Kemp gave Henderson County a 9-2 lead to start off before Apollo got back to within three on a pair of Amber Dunn free throws. Henderson hit triples on back-to-back trips — one by Wurth and another from Graci Risley — as part of a 7-0 run to go up 16-6. The Colonels missed their next four shots but ended the frame with a bucket by Thomas, who tossed in a rebound tapped from Kyra Dixon as time wound down.
Following a Dixon jumper that extended Henderson’s lead back to 10 with 7:11 left in the first half, the Colonels failed to score over the next four minutes, affording Apollo a chance to chip away. The E-Gals capitalized, going on a 7-0 run before Wurth snuffed it with a triple. Savannah Lacer added her first trey, and the Colonels’ fourth of the half, with 1:31 remaining to give Henderson County a 26-17 lead at the break.
Thomas connected on three of her four shots attempted in the third quarter to score six of Henderson’s 10 in the period. The Colonels held Apollo to 3-for-10 shooting in the quarter and took a 36-23 lead into the final frame after Wurth hit a layup as time expired.
Two long-range hits — one by Dunn and another from Kassidy Daugherty — got Apollo within 39-29 with 5:18 remaining, but that’s as tight as the E-Gals could make it in the fourth. Henderson County finished with a 30-18 edge on the glass and scored 22 points off 15 Apollo turnovers; that was similar to the teams’ first meeting, a 50-33 Colonels win, this month.
Henderson County, in the midst of its 17th Sweet 16 berth overall and 15th since 2001, awaited the winner of the final first-round game between Dixie Heights and Russell.
