A title, an MVP and 1,000 career points: A good week for Lady Aces

January 27, 2019 | 11:54 pm

Updated January 27, 2019 | 11:54 pm

Photo courtesy of PrepSpin

Sunday was quite fruitful for the Owensboro Catholic Lady Aces, and it capped an exciting weekend for the girls’ basketball program that almost ended early.

After cruising to a win over Brown in Wednesday’s opening round of the All “A” Classic state tournament, the Lady Aces were on the brink of elimination Friday in the quarterfinals.

They trailed most of the game against defending champion Murray and were still down by 2 with 40 seconds to go. Rather than go for the tie, head coach Michael Robertson trusted his players to get the win.

Spencer Harvey ran down the clock, drove the lane and kicked out to Madelyn Lyon, who drained the game-winning 3-pointer.

Fast forward through the Saturday’s matchup with Covington Holy Cross — one that Owensboro Catholic won with relative ease — and it left the Lady Aces competing for another state championship.

Following her 14-point, 8-rebound outing Saturday, Sarah Beth Clemens was sitting at 999 points for her career. In Sunday’s championship win over Walton-Verona, Clemens scored the first point of the game by hitting a free throw.

She knew going in that she needed a single point to make it to 1,000, but it didn’t click that she reached the mark until after the game. All she was worried about was getting a win.

“During the game, I didn’t even realize that I hit (1,000 points) because I wasn’t focused on that, she said. “I was just worried about winning the game. It’s not a huge deal to me. It’s cool to be in the club, but I was just glad we won the tournament.”

It took a grinding effort in the second half, but Owensboro Catholic overcame a 12-point deficit to earn a 44-40 victory. They added to their titles from 2011 and 2013, and join two other programs with the most All “A” Classic championships by any school.

“The fact that we were down 12 and still fought to win the game made it even better because we never gave up,” Clemens sid. “We really wanted to win and it showed.”

Clemens, Mackenzie Keelin and Lyon — all seniors — were named to the All-Tournament team, while junior Hannah McKay was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.

“It’s pretty exciting,” McKay said of the MVP and championship. “I was just following the plays and playing hard. I was able to rebound and score around the rim.”

McKay scored 49 points and had 22 rebounds, 3 assists and 6 steals in the tournament. Clemens (36 pts, 24 reb, 10 ast, 5 stl), Keelin (39 pts, 24 reb, 6 ast, 3 stl) and Lyon (17 pts, 12 reb, 6 ast, 4 stl) all contributed significant minutes and made key plays in big moments.

“All of us thought we earned it,” Clemens said. “We thought we played really good and deserved to make (the team).”

Clemens said the individual recognition is just icing on the cake, as bringing home the All “A” title was a main goal at the onset of the season. Now with some big wins under their belt, they can work on closing the year strong.

“At the beginning of our season, one of our goals was to get better every day so that we could win that tournament,” she said. “We’re in a really good spot. Winning this All “A” tournament will help us. We still have some harder teams on our schedule coming up. This tournament kind of prepared us for that.”

Robertson also said the tournament means a lot for the team. They’ve got their eyes on the regular KHSAA championship, but winning All “A” is still a notable accomplishment.

“Any time you can win a state-wide recognized tournament, that’s a big deal,” he said. “We’d love to win the big one and hopefully we can make a run at it this year, but All “A” is something special. I don’t really know how to put it into words. You’re playing schools that are your size and you’re able to say you’re the best, and that’s always a good thing to do.”

The season leading up to the tournament had been full of ups and downs. Though they didn’t have any bad losses, they weren’t quite able to knock off any of the best teams on the schedule to capture a signature win.

“We never could finish those statement games that we got opportunities to go play in,” Robertson said. “This weekend, we were able to take a step forward and make sure we won and we weren’t just competing in those games.”

Of the six remaining games on the schedule, two are district contests and the other four are against quality teams from the area. One of the biggest games will be a rematch with Webster County, who beat the Lady Aces handily in the Owensboro Invitational Tournament in late December.

Robertson is hopeful Sunday’s championship will be momentum for his team.

“Hopefully this is a step in the right direction,” he said. “I think these girls know how good they can be and hopefully we continue to get stronger and better each game.”

With Caroline Reid — the normal starting point guard — out for the past few weeks with an injury, players like Lyon, Harvey and Isabella Henning have gotten extra minutes. It’s just one more positive Robertson is expecting to benefit Owensboro Catholic as they start preparing for a deep postseason run.

“I just think it’s going to help us in the long run,” he said. “They’re all in there and getting more comfortable and they’re feeling better about themselves. There’s no way it can hurt us. I just think it can only help us.”

January 27, 2019 | 11:54 pm

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