It’s no secret that Owensboro Catholic has a superstar in Hannah McKay on their roster, but that’s not why they won yet another region championship. It was way the rest of the Lady Aces elevated their game in the postseason, especially in the 3rd Region tournament.
Sure, McKay still played a major factor each night — averaging 15.4 points and 10.8 rebounds in five postseason games.
But as Catholic head coach Michael Robertson will proudly say, she didn’t win those games alone. It took effort from every player who stepped on the court each night.
“It’s a team effort. It’s a team game. You can’t do it with just Hannah McKay,” Robertson said. “The other girls started kind of helping her out, and that makes for a hard team to beat when we’re all fighting for the same goal.”
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For photos from the championship game, click here.
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No one has stood out more over the last two weeks than Isabella Henning, who emerged as a star in her own right. The recent spikes in Henning’s averages speak for themselves:
• Regular season – 6.7 points and 2.4 rebounds
• District tournament – 13 points and 4 rebounds
• Region tournament – 21 points and 5.3 rebounds
But her contributions weren’t as simple as filling the stat sheet. Her late layup in the district title game against Apollo put Catholic up for good. In the region semifinals, she knocked down shot after shot as Meade County tried to fight back.
And in the region championship, her steal and score with 1:22 to play gave the Lady Aces their first lead in the fourth quarter — and it was vital to the late momentum shift that helped Catholic win their third straight region crown.
“I don’t know where she got it from, but she is a gamer,” Robertson said of Henning’s new level of performance. “I mean when the game is on the line, you want her up shooting free throws or taking shots. She just plays hard. She plays unconscious, and what I mean by that is she just goes out there and has fun. She doesn’t want to lose.”
Henning said she’s just been hyper-focused on doing whatever it takes to succeed.
“I’ve just been working on my shot and having confidence when I shoot,” she said. “My defense has been really good, and I’m just playing hard and being aggressive.”
That mindset has echoed throughout the roster, even if it doesn’t show up in a stat book.
Some nights it’s Spencer Harvey hitting timely 3-pointers. Some nights it’s Ally Maggard getting crucial rebounds. Catherine Head’s late-game free throws. Caroline Reid’s defensive stops. Katie Riney’s and Camille Conkright’s key minutes off the bench.
Put it all together, and it makes for the latest chapter in what has become a Lady Aces dynasty. Catholic has played for the region title in seven of the last eight years, winning five times (2013, 2016, 2018-20).
It’s the first three-peat in school history, but it was not quite smooth sailing this time around.
It would be easy to have considered Catholic a preseason favorite, but as the season wore on they started to look vulnerable.
“Maybe we were preseason number one, but Apollo beat us. Muhlenberg beat us. We lost to Sacred Heart big. Henderson put it to us the last week of the season. We lost some games there, but the whole season we were trying to find ourselves,” Robertson said. “We did a good job tinkering. I can’t say enough about the coaching staff. They’re always there for me, always watching film, always giving suggestions.”
They’ve found the recipe for success, winning six in a row and 10 of their last 11.
“The second season is our season,” Robertson said. “We really buckled down and started making people buy into what we’re doing, and they did. I’m just so happy for them.”
The state tournament will surely present new and bigger challenges, but Catholic will be a tough out as long as they continue to play for each other.
“The big key is just coming together and playing as a team,” Henning said. “Working together so we can do the best we can. I’m pretty excited.”
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