Owensboro Catholic continued their dominance Thursday night, knocking off title challenger and tournament host Apollo 46-32 in the girls’ basketball 9th District championship. The Lady Aces’ defense carried them in a game during which they never trailed.
The E-Gals (18-12) struggled to get going on the offensive end of the court, with their lone 3-point basket coming from Kassidy Daugherty with 7:28 to play in the third quarter. Following the bucket, Owensboro Catholic (24-7) led by 8 points, the closest the score ever got in the second half.
Apollo head coach Natalie Payne had approached the game with high hopes, believing that with a strong offensive showing her team had a good chance to pull off an upset. However, it wasn’t to be for the E-Gals, who struggled taking care of the ball against a stifling Lady Aces’ defense.
“Catholic did a really good job taking us out of what we wanted to do offensively,” Payne said. “I felt like we kind of went back to some of our old panic-passes and dug ourselves into a hole tonight. It hurt us having Zoe Floyd in foul trouble tonight, and we had a hard time getting her back into the flow of the game when she came back after halftime. Hats off to Catholic, though, they played a great game.”
It was a dominant showing for the No. 1 seed Lady Aces, a team that has so far beaten every region opponent by double digits. Owensboro Catholic head coach Michael Robertson was proud of the effort on both ends of the floor from his girls.
“Tonight we needed to play really well defensively to win this game, and every one of the girls stepped up,” Robertson said. “I think tonight was probably our most complete game in a long time.”
He continued, praising a few specific girls who played particularly well Thursday.
“Hannah McKay was an absolute beast tonight,” Robertson said. “Ally Maggard, back from being sick on Monday, played good minutes for us tonight. Katie Riney came in as an 8th-grader and gave us good minutes as well. Isabella Henning made some big shots and played well tonight, too.”
McKay led all scorers with 18, and Mackenzie Keelin 10.
Following the game, the All-District Teams were announced as follows:
Claire Johnson — Daviess County
Lexi Shadowen — Apollo
Kassidy Daugherty — Apollo
Amaya Curry — Owensboro
Tayonna Greer — Owensboro
Sarah Beth Clemens — Owensboro Catholic
Hannah McKay — Owensboro Catholic
MacKenzie Keelin (Player of the Year) — Owensboro Catholic
Scoring
Apollo: 7-6-11-8–32
Owensboro Catholic: 12-12-16-6–46
Apollo: Kassidy Daugherty 9, Lexi Shadowen 9, Zoe Floyd 6, Brylee Rhodes 2, Addison Carter 2, Amari Sanders 2, Amber Dunn 2
Owensboro Catholic: Hannah McKay 18, MacKenzie Keelin 10, Isabella Henning 6, Madelyn Lyon 4, Caroline Reid 3, Ally Maggard 3, Spencer Harvey 2
