Owensboro only led for 43.3 seconds, but that’s all that mattered as they used grit, defense and a little bit of luck to upset Apollo in a 37-35 home victory Friday night.
After trailing the entire night, Brooklyn Williams nailed a long jumper for the Lady Devils to tie the game at 35-all with 1:50 to play. Tamia Smith’s free throw with 43.3 seconds left gave OHS a 1-point lead, and Lyric Lawrence hit another with 22.4 on the clock.
The Lady Devils (4-8, 1-1 9th District) had lost nine straight to the E-Gals (7-4, 0-2), with the last win coming on Jan. 2, 2016.
“I told them any time a district game comes along, throw the records out, and you have to have a little bit of luck,” said OHS head coach Jansen Locher. “We’ve been on the opposite end of so many of these, and now we’re on the positive end and hopefully we can build off of it.”
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For more photos from the game, click here.
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The luck for the Lady Devils came in the waning seconds of the first half, when A’Lyrica Hughes heaved up a deep 3-pointer that banked home just before the buzzer. That cut Apollo’s lead to 20-15 heading into the locker rooms.
The E-Gals rushed out to a 16-5 lead in the opening period, using a pair of 3s and eight total points from Kassidy Daugherty to assert early control.
Apollo’s Addison Carter drained a 3-pointer to start the second quarter, but the E-Gals went the final 6:45 of the half without another basket — though Daugherty did hit one free throw.
“We switched defenses a little bit,” Locher said of the turn in momentum. “We know they can shoot the ball, so we knew for us to win we were going to have to make them make shots. We went zone. I don’t know if we got them rattled, but they weren’t hitting as many shots. Our rebounding really stepped up after the first four or five minutes of the game.”
Hughes hit a pair of 3-pointers in the third quarter as OHS trimmed their deficit to four points.
Apollo kept the slight edge until Hughes tied the game at 33-33 midway through the fourth. Amber Dunn put the E-Gals back on top with a transition bucket with about 3:40 to play, but they went scoreless the rest of the way.
“They got us rattled early, but a lot of our young girls have grown and learned to play in the moment,” Locher said. “We’ve learned to be patient with the ball. We had some people make some big shots when we needed them. We kept our composure and didn’t turn it over. I was proud of my girls.”
Hughes finished with a game-high 17 points with four 3-pointers. Daugherty led Apollo with nine points, all in the first half.
The E-Gals are back in action Saturday at home against Meade County, while the Lady Devils will play Monday at Grayson County.
BOX SCORE
AHS 16-4-10-5—35
OHS 7-8-11-11—37
AHS (35): Kassidy Daugherty (9), Amaya Curry (7), Addison Carter (6), Amber Dunn (6), Amari Sanders (3), Shelbie Beatty (2), Zoe Floyd (2)
OHS (37): A’Lyrica Hughes (17), Tamia Smith (6), Nia Gonzo (6), Lyric Lawrence (4), Kate Hrabalikova (2), Brooklyn Williams (2)
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