Sacred Heart defense keys semifinal win over Cooper in Sweet 16
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2022 Girls’ Sweet 16 coverage
Click below to read all of the coverage from Kentucky.com and the Lexington Herald-Leader during the Girls’ Sweet 16 State Basketball Tournament in Rupp Arena.
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For only the second time in the history of the girls’ state tournament, two Louisville-area schools will battle for the championship. And for Sacred Heart, it could give its program more state titles than any other.
Sacred Heart earned its chance to win a record sixth state title with a 50-29 victory over Cooper in the second semifinal game of the 2022 Mingua Beef Jerky Girls’ Sweet 16 on Saturday afternoon in Rupp Arena on Saturday. Bullitt East defeated Southwestern 66-42 in the earlier game.
The Valkyries and Chargers are scheduled to meet for a fourth time this season at 7 p.m. Saturday in Rupp. Sacred Heart leads the season series 2-1. Bullitt East is one of only three teams to topple the No. 1 Valkyries this year, doing so in overtime of the Louisville Invitational Tournament championship game on Jan. 30.
The Valkyries held Cooper to their lowest point output of this postseason and broke their semifinal game open with a dominating 16-4 run in the second period.
“I just thought today our defense was outstanding,” Sacred Heart head coach Donna Moir said. “I thought we did a really good job taking them out offensively of what they wanted to do.”
The Valkyries also exploited a mismatch in the paint as standout freshman ZaKiyah Johnson scored a game-high 21 points, many of them on the block.
“Our kids were dialed-in on getting (Johnson) the ball early and that really got us a lead,” Moir said.
Johnson helped frustrate Cooper defensively, as well as the Valkyries routinely switched on screens with their athletic defenders who are able to guard almost any position.
“They’ve got a lot of length,” Cooper head coach Justin Holthaus said. “They mix it up, too, and in the half court where they’re switching everything, it kind of got us out of rhythm.”
While Cooper got 14 points from Liz Freihofer, the Jags’ leading scorer, Whitney Lind, was held to eight. Only two other Jags scored.
“I haven’t really shown anybody how good I am on defense,” Johnson said. “I kind of brought it out tonight. I wanted to show them I can startle people and speed them up when I need to.”
Sacred Heart’s Triniti Ralston added 10 points and had four assists and last year’s Sweet 16 MVP, Josie Gilven, had six points, five assists and four steals.
If the Valkyries defend their state title Saturday night, they will break a four-way tie for most state titles all-time shared with Butler, Ashland Blazer and the since-closed Laurel County program.
Sacred Heart’s Moir was a reserve player and scored two points in the Valkyries’ first state championship game in 1976. That was also the last time two Louisville-area schools battled for the state title. Sacred Heart defeated Butler 68-55 in 1976.
Bullitt East, located in Mount Washington just south of Louisville, is less than 26 miles from Sacred Heart’s campus.
Sacred Heart will have to solve Bullitt East’s 6-foot-6 center, Gracie Merkle, a task no one else in the tournament has been able to do.
“I think of any team in the state, we match up to them very well and they’re gonna have to match up to us,” Moir said. “We’ve got some size that I feel like we can match up a little bit more to Merkle than some of the other teams here have. … We’re really excited. I think we’ve got the best two teams out there in the finals.”
This story was originally published March 12, 2022 at 4:44 PM.
