It had been three years since Owensboro Catholic’s girls’ basketball program last played in the quarterfinals of the Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Girls Basketball Sweet 16, but this time around, they ran into a wall that is Simon Kenton.
The Lady Pioneers couldn’t miss from deep early, splashing seven of their nine threes in the first half, and shot 8/10 at the line in the fourth quarter to close out Owensboro Catholic 63-50.
“We had a second quarter where we weren’t able to take care of business and force turnovers,” Owensboro Catholic Head Coach Michael Robertson said. “I did a bad job and should have switched my defense a little bit earlier. I thought I had what we wanted. It looked like if we went after them a little bit more, we would have had more success, but we waited too long to change the press. It is what it is.”
Trailing by as much as 24 in the third quarter, the Lady Aces responded with an 18-3 run, jump-started by back-to-back threes by Layla Martin and Taylor Mannahan. Sophia Newby and Katie Hagan combined for seven points, Martin added a layup, and Munsey hit her second of three of the game during the run.
“This group has a lot of fight in them. They weren’t going to give up or quit, and they just fought,” Robertson said. “We switched to more of a zone press to try to get quicker with the traps. I thought we had a little bit of success with that. We sped them up, and they didn’t shoot the ball as well in the second half as they did in first half.”
Cutting it to 50-41, the Lady Pioneers’ Anna Kelch hit a crushing three to push their lead back to double digits entering the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter, the Lady Aces were forced to start fouling, and Simon Kenton was able to put the game away at the line.
Newby led the Lady Aces with a double-double of 14 points and 12 rebounds, Mannahan added 10 points, five assists, two steals, and two rebounds, and Munsey finished with nine points, four rebounds, three assists, and one block.
Simon Kenton’s Brynli Pernell led all scorers with 18 points, Haylie Webb added 15 points and eight rebounds, and Angela Kabeya hit a pair of threes to go with her 10 points.
Despite the loss, the Lady Aces were able to snap their 3rd Region Championship drought, beating their 9th District rivals Daviess County in the title game.
“We fortunately get everybody back, Robertson said”. “I love this group. I think if we go put in the work, we can try to get back up here again next year and see what happens.”
