Hannah McKay simply imposed her will and carried Owensboro Catholic to a relatively easy 41-25 win over Murray on Friday in the All “A” Classic state tournament quarterfinals at Eastern Kentucky University.
The victory sends the defending champion Lady Aces through to the semifinals, where they’ll square off against Walton-Verona (15-4) at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
While McKay was carrying the offensive load, the Catholic defense was once again key in picking up a win. The Lady Aces scored 23 points off 16 Murray turnovers and limited the Lady Tigers to just 9-for-40 shooting from the field.
“Defensively I think we’re playing excellent,” Catholic head coach Michael Robertson said. “We are in tune with the game plan. We’re being tenacious, doing things we need to do and getting down and gritting it out.”
McKay alone matched Murray’s offensive output, as the senior star for Catholic finished with 25 points — also accounting for seven more with her three assists. She also grabbed 10 rebounds to add to her growing number of double-doubles this season.
“She’s doing great,” Robertson said. “She’s doing a great job of asserting herself inside. We want her to be strong in the paint, and almost all of her points today came down low.”
The Lady Aces (15-7) never trailed, using nine points from McKay to jump out to an 11-5 advantage through the first period.
Murray’s Makenzie Turley drained a pair of 3s to knot the game at 11-all early in the second. The Lady Tigers (9-10) had chances to take the lead before halftime, but Catholic’s defense came up with stops time and time again.
With the game tied at 13-13, Ally Maggard blocked a shot on one possession and stole the ball on the next, and Spencer Harvey gave Catholic the lead for good with a 3-pointer at the other end. A steal by Harvey then led to a quick bucket by Maggard for an 18-13 advantage.
“Ally played really well,” Robertson said. “She got into some foul trouble, but other than that I thought she played tremendous.”
Murray had one last chance to score before halftime, but Isabella Henning swiped the ball for Catholic one more time just before the buzzer.
The Lady Tigers opened the third quarter with another 3 from Turley, though at 18-16 it was the closest they would get in the second half.
McKay scored Catholic’s next seven points before feeding Maggard down low late in the third, stretching the advantage to 27-20 heading into the final frame.
After a quick score by Murray’s Calli Carver, McKay led the Lady Aces on a 9-0 run — scoring six points and assisting on a Harvey triple — to put the game away with a 14-point advantage and only 2:51 to play.
The Lady Aces shot 16-for-42 from the field, though nearly half of their misses came from 3-point range (3-for-15). They were efficient down low, outscoring Murray 22-10 in the paint.
Harvey finished with eight points, while Maggard added six points and six rebounds. Henning had four steals.
Catholic will now turn attention to their semifinal against Walton-Verona, who had a 19-point second-half lead whittled down to four before hanging on for a 37-31 win over Shelby Valley in their quarterfinal.
“We’re going to have to grind it out again tomorrow,” Robertson said. “Shots are going to start falling for us because our offense is too good for them not to. Just staying focused on our team is going to be key.”
The other semifinal will feature Bethlehem (19-2) versus Danville (14-4) at 11 a.m. The championship game will be played at 11 a.m. Sunday.
BOX SCORE
MHS 5-8-7-5—25
OCHS 11-7-9-14—41
MHS (25): Makenzie Turley 14, Calli Carver 3, Jamera Jones 2
OCHS (41): Hannah McKay 25, Spencer Harvey 8, Ally Maggard 6, Brooke Hamilton 2
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2019-20 basketball coverage is presented in part by Rhoads & Rhoads Attorneys at Law.
