Manual lost by two in overtime to Rockcastle County of the 2011 final, and it was the first time since 2007 that the state championship in girls' prep hoops had landed outside Louisville and first time since 2000 that it had gone to a team outside either Louisville or Lexington.
In yesterday's first four games of the 2012 Houchens Industries/KHSAA Girls Sweet Sixteen® Basketball Tournament at Western Kentucky University's E.A. Diddle Arena in Bowling Green, city beat town or city beat littler city or town beat littler town at every turn. Only Montgomery County is left in the upper half of the bracket with teams from Louisville and Lexington, and it next plays the favorite: Manual, the state's top-rated team in The Courier-Journal's Litkenhous Ratings, which improved to 34-2 with a nine-point win in which they never trailed against No. 4 Perry Central. Here were yesterday's scores:
-- Suda E. Butler Traditional Bearettes of Louisville 54, Glasgow Lady Scotties 49
-- Paul Laurence Dunbar Lady Bulldogs of Lexington 72, Boone County Lady Rebels of Florence 70
-- Alfred Victor duPont Manual Lady Crimsons of Louisville 50, Perry County Central Lady Commodores of Hazard 41
-- Montgomery County Indians of Mount Sterling 60, Muhlenberg County Lady Mustangs of Greenville 43
So, this tournament is again setting up to pair big-city favorite against little-town upstart in the state championship, and today's second batch of four first-round games begins to sort out which potential David gets to take Saturday's last, big swing. Here are today's first-round games:
-- Hopkinsville Lady Tigers vs. Marshall County Lady Marshals of Draffenville at noon Central
-- Marion County Lady Knights of Lebanon vs. Walton-Verona Bearcats at 1:30 p.m. Central
-- Magoffin County Lady Hornets of Salyersville vs. Paul Blazer Kittens of Ashland at 6:30 p.m. Central
-- Lincoln County Lady Patriots of Stanford vs. Clay County Lady Tigers of Manchester at 8 p.m. Central
And, finally, courtesy of the KHSAA, here are links where we can listen or watch.
It was a tough day for downtown Cadiz on Thursday. Not only did it miss out on the Marshall County High Lady Marshals' parade from Draffenville to the state basketball tournament in Bowling Green because of the Eggner Ferry bridge outage, there was a big fire. Shopping in downtown Cadiz is a lot of fun, and I hope it recovers quickly from this blow.
ReplyDeleteI hate it when the 1st Region draws the 2d Region in the State Tournament.
ReplyDeleteMe, too!
ReplyDeleteHoptown's WHOP FM, "Lite 98.7, Today's Hits and Yesterday's Favorites," is planning to broadcast today's game. So far this morning, they've played "Lost In Love" by Air Supply and one of those '80s Chicago power ballads.
ReplyDeleteAdvantage, Lady Marshals.
Well, I've moved on to Stanford's WPBK, which is doing the Lincoln County game tonight. At the moment, they're doing one of those swap-shop shows. We're coming off two straight callers with roosters for sale.
ReplyDeleteHeck, a guy with a washer and dryer for sale broke the string.
"The girls comb their hair in rearview mirrors/
ReplyDeleteAnd the boys try to look so hard"
WPBK comes back from the swap shop with "Born To Run." Clay County better be ready tonight, because the Lady Patriots of Lincoln County--listening to the hometown Stanford station on their laptops back in their rooms at the Holidome or wherever in Bowling Green--are going to be fired up, buddy!
Interesting! In Stanford, they call them the "Lady Pates."
ReplyDeleteI like the term "Lady Pates."
DeleteHere's where Mom and I stayed when we went over to Bowling Green for my WKU orientation in summer 1986:
ReplyDeleteHoliday Inn - Bowling Green, Kentucky
Highway 31-W By-Pass
Ph: 842-9453 - AC: 502
Swimming Pool - Air-conditioned - Restaurant - Free TV - Free Holidex Reservations - Children's Playground & Cocktail Lounge
OK, WHOP's getting more serious as we approach game time. "Jessie's Girl," Rick Springfield.
ReplyDeleteOh, I don't know. WHOP's playing Five for Fighting's "100 Years"? Are you kidding me? Are the Lady Tigers playing in first round of the state championship, or are they getting together in the Holidome conference room to watch a montage slide show of pictures from their win in the Second Region tournament?
ReplyDeleteBUT WHOP BOUNCES BACK WITH "TAKE ON ME" BY A-HA!
ReplyDeleteOK, we're off and running between Hoptown and Marshall County in the state tournament in Bowling Green. Here's the WHOP stream.
ReplyDeleteLady Marshals 2
Lady Tigers 0
WHOP Todd Hamilton: "The Soldo nation is strong in the arena, and we have family of hers listening today from all over the world." He's talking about Lady Tigers forward Christy Soldo, who has eight points and four rebounds and, per The Paducah Sun's Joey Fosko, headed to Murray State.
ReplyDelete2:46 to go in the first half ...
Hoptown 29
Marshall County 24
WPSD Sports @WPSD_Sports
ReplyDeleteAt the half: Hopkinsville 31, Marshall County 26. Meadows leads Lady Marshals with 8 points. MC shooting 42.9%. HOP shooting 54.2%. #WPSD
12:36 PM - 8 Mar 12
Joey Fosko @JoeyFreaknFosko
Hoptown leads Marshall 31-26 at halftime ... Marshall showed some jitters, trying to make too many things happen, but still in game.
12:36 PM - 8 Mar 12
Andy Waterman @AndyH20man
I think most of the Hopkinsville student body took the day off of school to come to this game. #GreatShowing
12:30 PM - 8 Mar 12
Dan Manley with WMST in Mount Sterling just popped on the air to talk with Todd Hamilton on WHOP. He said he never saw the Paul Hornung Louisville Flaget teams or the early 1960s Fort Thomas Highlands teams but that 1965 Hopkinsville coached by Flemming Norton was the first great high-school football team he ever saw in Kentucky.
ReplyDelete"The overall talent and precision of that team ...," Manley said. "It was the first team I ever saw that ran something that you might call the triple option. It was kind of magic to see them play in 1965."
I think I'm a huge, huge, huge fan of Dan Manley and WMST in Mount Sterling. I'm suddenly for Montgomery County in this tournament.
Hopkinsville 40
ReplyDeleteMarshall County 33
Lady Tigers got their lead out to 14, but now the Lady Marshals have responded with a 7-0 run of their own ... make that 10-0 ...
Hopkinsville 40
Marshall County 36
Offensive follow by Hoptown breaks the Marshall run at about two-and-a-half minutes to go in the third quarter ...
ReplyDeleteHopkinsville 42
Marshall County 36
Jody Demling @jdemling
ReplyDeleteRay Harper in the building here at Diddle Arena or as @kyhighs would say "The House Ray rebuilt."
1:00 PM - 8 Mar 12
#HARPERMANIA!
Hopkinsville 42
ReplyDeleteMarshall County 39
46-41, Hoptown, through three quarters ... good game ... excellent WHOP call ...
ReplyDeleteA fellow who is working with Todd Hamilton on this game just said he has "gotten to know Ray Harper since he came over here to Western. Great guy and an even better basketball coach."
ReplyDeleteCrushing blow ... WHOP feed down ... Joey Fosko Tweets that Hoptown leads, 50-46, with 4:32 to play ...
ReplyDelete2:11 to play ...
ReplyDeleteHopkinsville 51
Marshall County 50
Minute to go ...
ReplyDeleteMarshall County 52
Hoptown 51
Lady Marshal freshman puts in offensive follow against Hoptown's Soldo, KHSAA radio says (sadly, had to give up on WHOP's balky feed) ...
"If I'm Coach Tonya Wells and I'm in the state tournament, I want to win or lose with the ball in Soldo's hands," says KHSAA commentator.
ReplyDeleteSoldo follow!
ReplyDeleteHopkinsville 53
Marshall County 52
Lady Marshals timeout with 34 seconds to play ...
Marshall County misses and then has to commit a couple of fouls to get Hoptown to the line. Lady Tigers miss front end of one-on-one, but Soldo rebounds. Then Hoptown gets one free throw, but the missed second shot ricochets out of bounds off a Marshall County player.
ReplyDeleteSo, another Lady Marshal timeout. It's 54-52, Hoptown, with seven seconds to go, and the Lady Tigers will have the ball.
Soldo hits two free throws: 56-52, Lady Tigers. Hoptown uses final timeout, and Marshall County needs a miracle ...
ReplyDeleteThat's it: 56-52, Hoptown beats Marshall County.*
ReplyDelete(*=Eggner Ferry bridge outage)
This is one of the reasons I don't like it when the 1st Region plays the 2d Region. They usually win.
DeleteLitkenhous No. 2 Marion County 56
ReplyDeleteLitkenhous No. 14 Walton-Verona 49
Sure feels like we're barreling toward a No. 1 Manual-vs.-No. 2 Marion County final. That matchup came in the first Saturday semifinal last year, and the Bearettes prevailed, 56-54. Rockcastle County thumped Calloway County, 57-38, in the second game and then outlasted Manual in overtime in Saturday night's championship, 62-60.
Boone County's Sydney Moss is, indeed, headed to the University of Florida, per Jody Demling in The Courier-Journal. And her dad was, indeed, on hand to watch her final high-school game, yesterday at Diddle.
ReplyDeleteRemember Sydney Moss, Randy's daughter? She and Thomas More College's women's basketball team are in today's New York Times. Mad props to Trey Grayson, formerly of Edgewood Dixie Heights, for the tip to the story.
DeleteGlasgow coach Justin Stinson in a Michael Compton/Zach Greenwell story in Bowling Green's Daily News: “I got an email from a coach that said, ‘I got here in 1985 as a young coach, thinking I’d come every year and I never got back.’ Their advice was to enjoy it.”
ReplyDeleteLes Dixon ties a bow on the 13th Region tournaments in the Times-Courier of Corbin.
ReplyDeleteRough day for Lady Marshals.
ReplyDeleteMagoffin County and Ashland Blazer getting set to tip ...
ReplyDeleteOh, you've got to be kidding me.
ReplyDelete