G. Michael Graham Photo. The Newport Central Catholic girls basketball players, coaches and trainer watch with joy as the Thoroughbreds pulled away from Bishop Brossart in the second half of Saturday's 63-37 win in the All "A" Semifinals. NewCath faces Owensboro Catholic for the state championship Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
By G. MICHAEL GRAHAM
Fort Thomas Matters Sports Reporter
FRANKFORT –
Opposing girls basketball teams have tried it all year long.
They pack
the middle against junior standout Nikki Kiernan and force the Newport Central
Catholic Thoroughbreds to beat them from outside. It did not work early in the
season because NewCath hit shots from outside.
But it
began to work some once the Thoroughbreds stopped hitting from there
consistently. NewCath still found other ways to win for the most part.
However,
the Thoroughbreds knew they’d eventually hit from the outside again. They may
have just found their shooting touch in Saturday’s win over the rival Bishop
Brossart Lady Mustangs, 63-37 in the All “A” State Semifinals at the Frankfort Convention Center. NewCath also
beat Bishop Brossart, 65-55 on Dec. 17.
NewCath
faces 2011 champion Owensboro Catholic (15-5) of the 3rd Region at 12:30 p.m.
Sunday for the title. The Lady Aces beat Gallatin County, 73-60 in the other
semifinal.
NewCath
(19-4) made 8-of-30 three-pointers – four in each half – for 27 percent as
Bishop Brossart (18-5) came out in mixture of zones to pack things in against
Kiernan and Alexus Mayes. Ansley Davenport led the way in that department
making 3-of-7 shots from outside with Michaela Ware, Stephanie Lewis, Kiernan,
Chelsea Schack and Sarah Neace making one each.
“What can be tough is when (opponents) are not playing
far off from you, you shoot, miss and it gets to your head,” said George Stoll, NewCath head coach. “That’s what we talked about before during
one of the timeouts. We told them to think about how many three-pointers they’ve
shot from the wing in their lives. We had to step in there, shoot it with
confidence and they’re going to go in.”
Mayes
scored 15 of her team-high 17 points in the second half as NewCath pulled away.
Lewis added 14 and Davenport had nine as the Thoroughbreds saw nine different
players score.
“Once we got the three-pointers going, we felt more
confident to take more shots,”
Davenport said. “I always try to find
different spots and try to get my feet set.”
The Lady
Mustangs held Kiernan to eight points – all in the second half – after she
torched them for a triple-double of 19 points, 12 rebounds, and 12 blocks in
the December meeting. Kiernan still dominated the glass with 19 rebounds and
rejected six shots.
“It was very frustrating because it makes it harder
for us to score,” Kiernan said. “Luckily, they laid off our teammates and
we had enough teammates come in and make up for them doubling and tripling
(myself and Mayes).”
That marked
Kiernan’s lone triple-double of the season. She has 12 double-doubles.
NewCath
outrebounded Bishop Brossart, 47-37. That included 13-8 on the offensive glass.
The Thoroughbreds outscored the Lady Mustangs, 18-0 in second-chance points. Mayes
and Lewis nabbed eight rebounds each. Lewis had most of those points off five
offensive rebounds.
“They were worried about (Mayes and Kiernan) so I just
took advantage of it,” Lewis said. “I went and got the ball then tried to put
it back up hoping it would go in.”
The Thoroughbreds
hit 21-of-57 shots for 37 percent and made 13-of-21 free throws for 62 percent.
They also committed just seven fouls.
On the
other side, the Lady Mustangs made 15-of-55 shots for 27 percent including
4-of-14 from three-point land and 3-of-9 free throws for 33 percent. Bishop
Brossart committed 17 fouls.
“Offense is the fun part, but defense is what wins
games,” Mayes said. “We worry more about defense. If we do well
on defense, our offense comes to us naturally.”
Both teams
took good care of the basketball. NewCath had six turnovers and three steals to
eight turnovers and four steals for Bishop Brossart. The Lady Mustangs did try
to speed the game up with full-court pressure later in the game.
The
Thoroughbreds dished out 11 assists to seven for the Lady Mustangs. Ware had
five for NewCath.
“They do a great job with the man-to-man press,” Stoll said. “I
told them before the game the key is to make sure they take care of the
basketball. It’s not just one person. It’s everyone. We did a great job of that
in the second half.”
Brossart
led early in the contest, 7-2. But Davenport hit her first three-pointer to cut
the margin to 7-5 and the NewCath confidence grew from there. Lewis hit her
lone triple with 1:01 left in the quarter to give the Thoroughbreds a 10-7
advantage.
NewCath
doubled Bishop Brossart in the second quarter to go up 24-14 at halftime. Lewis
scored six in that quarter including an offensive putback with 44 seconds left.
“When you have the talent inside with Mayes and Kiernan,
you have to pick your poison of what you’re going to do,” said Josh Feldmann, Bishop Brossart head coach. “We tried to take those two away. Our main
thing is we couldn’t put the ball in the hole. If we’d have made some shot early,
we could have stayed with what we were doing and put some pressure on them.”
The
Thoroughbreds kept expanding the lead in the second half. They led 43-25
entering the fourth quarter.
NewCath is
making its third appearance in the All “A” title game in five seasons. The
Thoroughbreds won it in 2010 and fell in overtime to Walton-Verona in the title
game last year.
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