Daviess County played host on Friday night to the visiting Henderson County Lady Colonels at Luther Beatley Court. The Lady Colonels are coached by Jeff Hale who is the father of first-year Daviess County head coach Stephen Haile. In a father-son matchup of similar play styles, it was the visiting team from Henderson County who came out on top, by a final score of 61-40.
Henderson County’s Jeff Haile had a few tricks up his sleeve for his son in the game, including starting out with a 2-3 zone defensive set, something the Lady Colonels do not do very often. Aside from the poker move at the start, there wasn’t much that Henderson County was able to do that the Lady Panthers weren’t expecting. Both teams ran similar offensive and defensive sets, and both Hale’s pride themselves on a similar philosophy of mental toughness and forcing turnovers from their opponents.
Perhaps the biggest test that Stephen Haile and his Lady Panthers basketball team encountered on the night was the vaunted 1-3-1 full-court pressure that has become a staple of Jeff Haile’s success for many years. The Daviess County coach commented after the game on what exactly was going through his mind in the days leading up to the matchup with his father.
“I was thinking about the game a lot the last couple of days,” Haile said. “Once the game started it was just basketball, it wasn’t any different once we got in the flow of it. I will sleep better tonight now that the first one is under my belt and I’m really proud of the girls and how they executed what we asked of them.”
The young Lady Panthers, who were without freshman guard Lily Hoagland, acquitted themselves nicely for large chunks of the game against the Lady Colonels pressure, including a solid stretch immediately following halftime.
It was with 5:18 to go in the third quarter when Adylan Ayer drove hard to the basket and put up a layup attempt on which she was fouled hard by Lady Colonels forward Careese Toombs. As Ayer stepped to the line and knocked down both free throw attempts, the visitors’ lead was trimmed to 30-26. The play ultimately proved to be a high-water mark for the home team, as the culmination of their execution and determination never provided a chance to close the gap in the end.
Henderson County responded to the ratcheted pressure from the Lady Panthers by storming out to a 13-point advantage by the end of the third quarter. That lead would only grow in the fourth quarter, as Lady Colonels star junior forward Jarie Thomas capped off a 23-4 run with a pair of free throws at the 5:17 mark in the fourth quarter. Those free throws were just two of her game-high 26 points, which she paired with a double-digit rebounding effort to lead her team to victory.
There were certainly positives to take from the game for the young Lady Panthers, which their head coach noted after the contest.
“We played fairly well tonight,” Hale said. “I told the girls that in order to win without Lily in the lineup, we need to play games in the 30s and 40s. The girls played hard and we kept it close for a while, but eventually, it just got away from us there a little bit late. I’m proud of the effort from the girls, and if we could have limited the second-chance points off of offensive rebounds, I feel like we might have had a little better chance to win the ball game.”
Henderson County will be back in action on Tuesday night as they hit the road to match up with Webster County at 6:00 PM. Daviess County will be back in action on Tuesday night as well, matching up with Hopkinsville at home for a 7:30 PM tipoff.
