The Owensboro Catholic girls’ basketball team will have a chance to defend their 3rd Region Tournament title after rolling to a 61-31 victory over Breckinridge County in a semifinal game on Saturday. Hannah McKay scored her 1,000th point in the first quarter and tied for the team high with 10 points.
The Lady Aces (26-7) used a dominant defense to shut down the Lady Tigers (21-10) and earn their sixth win in a row and 17th in the last 18 games. Head coach Michael Robertson said they’ll have to stay strong at least one more time to earn a repeat trip to the Sweet 16.
“Our defense has been strong,” he said. “It’s going to have to be strong one more time to try to get us this regional championship.”
It was slow going early on for both teams, though Catholic never trailed following a pair of free throws by McKay for a 2-1 lead. With 27 seconds left in the opening frame, she reached 1,0001 career points on a mid-range jumper that put the Lady Aces up 11-8.
“That’s great for her,” Robertson said of McKay reaching the milestone. “I’m happy she got to it. She’s a great player.”
Catholic went up by 11 points after a corner 3 by Spencer Harvey with 3:29 to play in the half, and they maintained a double-digit lead the rest of the way. Isabella Henning scored the last 5 points of the second quarter for the Lady Aces for a 28-15 advantage at the break.
The Lady Tigers were never able to make a dent in the deficit in the second half, and Robertson was proud of how his team finished after a sloppy start.
“I think we took them lightly early,” he said. “We weren’t focused. We didn’t do what we wanted to do. In the second half we really came out and took care of business. We remembered the scouting report and ran the things we needed to run and really took advantage of them. It also helped that we hit a couple outside shots.”
The Lady Aces got to the line 31 times, though they only hit 20, in a game that was physical from the start.
“That was a chippy game, but we handled ourselves,” Robertson said. “Breck played a heck of a game. We just did enough to win.”
Catholic advances to the championship game at 7 p.m. Tuesday, and they’ll face Apollo (20-12) for the fourth time this season. The E-Gals held off Muhlenberg County for a 49-39 victory in the other semifinal Saturday. The Lady Aces have won all three meetings so far.
Robertson said he’s glad to reach the title game after being the team to beat all season.
“I’m just happy,” he said. “The bullseye has been on our back all year long. For us make sure to play hard and get there, that’s great.”
Scoring
Catholic 11-17-17-16–61
Breck. Co. 8-7-6-10–31
Catholic: Hannah McKay 10, Spencer Harvey 10, Isabella Henning 7, Sarah Beth Clemens 7, Caroline Reid 6, Mackenzie Keelin 4, Ally Maggard 4, Kinsley Goetz 4, Madelyn Lyon 4, Allie Hamilton 2, Kaylan Logsdon 2, Randchelle Johnson 1
Breck. Co.: Sydney Tucker 10, Kayla Young 6, Lindsey Whitfill 5, Skylar Tucker 4, Natalee Tabor 3, Cassidy McDaniel 2, Aleigha Mucker 1
