Despite early offensive struggles, the Lady Aces were able to outscore Daviess County 34-14 in the second half en route to a 51-28 road district win.
Owensboro Catholic controlled the tempo right from the jump, making it a fast-paced looking to get out in transition using some fullcourt pressure against the Lady Panthers.
The Lady Aces were able to get plenty of open looks from deep in the first, but weren’t able to connect. However, thanks to eight points from sophomore Hailee Johnson and freshman Karmin Riley, they went into the second up 13-12.
It was much of the same in the second quarter, as both teams were limited to less than four points. Daviess County was struggling much more with possession on offense, unable to find ways through Owensboro Catholic’s 1-3-1 zone en route to a 17-14 deficit at halftime.
The Lady Aces bounced back offensively in the third, while continuing to stifle Daviess County offensively. This was the story for the Lady Panthers throughout the second half, as they were limited to seven points in the third and fourth.
Getting nine points from beyond the arc, Owensboro Catholic had its strongest quarter of the night (21) to close out a 51-28 win.
The Lady Aces had struggled to convert some good looks throughout the game, something that Head Coach Michael Robertson said they have been dealing with recently. However, he feels as though they were executing the way they wanted to.
“We’re running our offense really well,” Robertson said. “I think we’re getting the shots that we want, we’re taking the shots that we want. Sometimes we’re forcing it a little bit, but for the most part we’re running our offense and getting the looks that we want. It’s just a matter of whether they’re falling or not.”
Despite some of its offensive shortcomings, Robertson felt that Owensboro Catholic had played a great game in other areas.
“We’re just not hitting shots and I don’t think we hit shots again today until the fourth quarter,” Robertson said. “But we’re playing defense. We’re doing a good job there. We held them to 28 points. If we can hold people to 28 points I’ll take it.”
Head Coach Stephen Haile felt that the Lady Panthers were suffering some of the same issues, as they played well defensively throughout the game.
“Defensively til the very end [we played well],” Haile said. “We had enough stops to win the basketball game. We just struggled to put the ball in the basket and took some ill advised shots that were out of character for some of our players that we didn’t need.”
Haile said that as the game progressed their defense started to regress due to the fact that shots just weren’t falling despite having open looks.
“Eventually, your morale starts to go down a little bit when the ball doesn’t go in the basket and your defense starts slacking…” Haile said. “You can only stop teams so many times. They’re a good offensive team. They’ve got some girls that can shoot the ball and take it to the basket. They’re a good team period, so we were fortunate to be in the game as we were because we didn’t play very well offensively.”
This has been a frustrating recurrence for Haile and company, as Daviess County has found themselves competing well against talented teams and then the game gets away from them late.
“It’s kind of how our season has been going…” Haile said. “We’ve been in every game we’ve played this year. In the third quarter it’s been under five I think every single game we’ve played. There becomes a certain point where we haven’t put the ball in the basket and our defense, eventually we get tired. It’s hard to hold a team to 30 points.”
Freshman Lily Hoagland led the charge offensively for Daviess County, serving as the only player in double figures with 12 points on the night.
Meanwhile, Johnson and Riley both tallied 12 points each on the night for the Lady Aces, with all of Riley’s points coming from three.
Riley has continued to be a viable scoring threat for the Lady Aces over the past month, which in turn has opened up the offense for her teammates.
“It’s great to have it,” Robertson said. “She extends the floor and allows for driving lanes for Maddie and Hailee. So it’s really nice to have her out there. Katie Riney got some good drives tonight because of it. Then you also got her out there when she’s hitting shots, they’ve gotta guard that. And she’s shooting two or three feet behind the line, it’s not like they’re high school threes. She’s shooting college and NBA range consistently.”
The win improves Owensboro Catholic to 20-7 overall and 5-0 in district play, as they have a quick turnaround with a home matchup against Christian County at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Daviess County on the other hand falls to 13-10 overall and 1-3 in district play, but Haile has faith that his team can turn things around to close out the regular season strong.
“I told the girls, we played hard,” Haile said. “We were in the game pretty much the whole time… We’re right there against them and we ended up losing by 20 to Henderson and Breckinridge and a couple of other good teams we’ve played, but we’ve been right there every single game. It’s tough to get over that hump, but I feel like once we do it once, we’ll learn how to be a good team.”
The Lady Panthers will get the chance to bounce back with a district matchup on Wednesday, as they are set to take on Owensboro for the second time this season at 6 p.m.
