Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Girls’ Sweet 16
Thank you, players, coaches, administrators, parents, teachers, bus drivers, WKU Physical Plant, radio broadcasters, Tweeters, concessionaires, EMS and security personnel, etc. Thank you, Houchens Industries, and thank you, Kentucky High School Athletic Association.
Life! More Life!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The tournament program is SIXTY-SIX PAGES LONG! YEEAAAAAAH! BOOM! Abundance, baby!
ReplyDeleteI got nothing against Ashland, but I've lived and worked and visited and traveled through Henderson off and on throughout my life. I will be rooting for the Lady Colonels in Game 1 of the tournament, and I plan to listen to the game on "The Home Team," WSON 860 AM.
ReplyDeleteMaxine Nightingale's perfect "Right Back Where We Started From" currently rocking the Home Team ... I think Blazer's in trouble.
ReplyDeleteGot a new, upgraded modem throbbing the bandwidth ... got the Home Team booming ... ready to do some Diddle at noontime, baby!
ReplyDeleteNo room for the label on this post, but, as ever, The Internet Is Amazing™.
ReplyDeleteThe Lady Cols were 27-2 this year--their two losses coming to Evansville (Ind.) Mater Dei (where my niece once played!) and Louisville Butler (the defending state champ, which lost in the first round of the Sixth Region tournament).
ReplyDeleteThe Kittens are 26-6. Their first loss of the season was to South Charleston, West Virginia, about which I once began writing a based-on-a-true-story song. Here was the chorus:
ReplyDeleteChrist-mas in
South Charleston,
West Virginia
This is not
a sad song
That's as far as I got.
Have now gone into pregame radio silence, as the Home Team has been broadcasting "The Wedding Planner Show," which I'm sure is good.
ReplyDeleteBack to the Home Team and, as The Courier-Journal's Jason Frakes noted, back to Diddle for the last time before the Girls' Sweet Sixteen moves to NKU for the next couple of years.
ReplyDeleteThe pregame show is on, but the WSON interface indicates that the song that would be playing right now is "Carefree Highway" by Gordon Lightfoot. That's a good song.
ReplyDeleteHenderson Gleaner sports boss ...
ReplyDeleteKevin Patton @kjpatton67
Solid student section from Henderson Co. today, but I wonder where they were during the regional tournament?
11:55 AM - 11 Mar 2015
OK, WSON rolls out a National Anthem tape, and now here comes "a word of Christian prayer" from "one of your many friends at First Baptist Church."
ReplyDeleteAmen. Here we go.
ReplyDeleteThis is a big day for live KHSAA sports on the radio on U.S. 41 in northwestern Kentucky. WSON's got the Girls' Sweet 16; meanwhile, 1550 AM WUCO in Morganfield is carrying the state wrestling championships. That's some happy AM-dial scanning for the lunchtime travelers.
ReplyDelete4-0 start for the Kittens.
ReplyDelete9-0 run for the Lady Cols!
ReplyDeleteHenderson County's run reaches 13 points before a Blazer free throw and transition bucket make it 13-7 late in the first quarter.
ReplyDeleteAnd the Kittens put together a 12-0 spurt.
ReplyDeleteEnd of Quarter 1: Ashland Blazer 18, Henderson County 17.
Half: 29-27, Lady Cols.
ReplyDeleteNot on WSON now: (fantastic) "Ain't No Sunshine" by (indispensable) Bill Withers.
Latest spurt in this game pushes Henderson County to 37-29 lead midway through the third quarter.
ReplyDeleteLady Cols surge to 47-34 advantage ...
ReplyDeleteKevin Patton @kjpatton67
But remember Ashland came back from a double digit deficit to beat Henderson last year.
1:07 PM - 11 Mar 2015
6:17 to go, and Henderson County's lead is 10.
ReplyDelete"I've got to believe that something big is coming here," says the nervous WSON color commentator.
Then one of the big-star Lady Cols is called for her fourth foul.
Final: Henderson County 59, Ashland Blazer 55.
ReplyDeleteA giant crowd of Male backers reportedly rolled in to WKU's E.A. Diddle Arena at half of Game 1, and they are very happy at half of intraLouisville Game 2: Lady Bulldogs 36, Mercy Academy 21.
ReplyDeleteMale 78, Mercy 59. Final.
ReplyDeleteWednesday's evening session brought a couple more lop-sided games: Etown, 79-38, over Mercer County, and Covington Holy Cross, 51-33 over Bell County.
ReplyDeleteNow we've tipped off Day 2 with the Lady Cougars of Letcher County Central in Whitesburg against the Lady Eagles of Johnson Central in Paintsville, and they're already yelling on Whitesburg's WXKQ 103.9 FM, "The Bulldog."
ReplyDeleteHeartbreak on The Bulldog ... Letcher County Central leads almost the entire game but makes only two of four free throws and commits a key turnover all in the last minute, and Johnson Central comes from behind to post its first-ever Girls' Sweet 16 victory in nine tries, 62-60.
ReplyDeleteAnd quite quickly, WXKQ flips it back to Whitesburg to get back to spinning "light rock music, from yesterday and today." Dan Hartman's "I Can Dream About You" is the soundtrack of the offseason.
ReplyDeleteSo now we're on to Maysville's Soft 96 FM WFTM for Mason County vs. Muhlenberg County.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Ray Harper of Bremen is checking in at the HP to keep up with this game from the Sun Belt men's tournament in New Orleans.
ReplyDeleteBad news, RayRay ... Mason County, 20-9 over Muhlenberg, after one quarter.
ReplyDelete44-31, Mason, through three quarters ...
ReplyDeleteThe final margin is 63-43.
ReplyDeleteNext game doesn't tip until 6:30 p.m. Central, so we've got plenty of time to cross the street from Diddle over to the Downing University Center ... maybe do some bowling ... play a little Galaga ... watch a little MTV, hit the vending machines ... good stuff.
OK, back to the girls' tournament, Allen County-Scottsville has beaten Franklin County, 52-32. That should make for a good crowd at Diddle tomorrow evening.
ReplyDeleteLast game of the first round: Graves County vs. Simon Kenton. I'm listening to it on Mayfield's 102.1 FM WLLE, or "WiLLiE."
ReplyDeleteOur play-by-play commentator is Joe Jackson, who is @JoeJack74 on Twitter ("I have a hot wife, two great boys and I love the Louisville Cardinals.")
ReplyDeleteTen straight points for Graves County, to pull the Lady Eagles to within 19-18 of Kenton with a little more than three minutes to go in the first half.
ReplyDeleteTied at 21 at the half. All but one of Graves County's six first-half field goals was a three-pointer.
ReplyDelete34-30, Graves, after three quarters.
ReplyDeleteGraves County did it! 52-43 over Simon Kenton.
ReplyDeleteSo, today's semifinals:
-- Henderson County vs. Male at noon on WSON
-- Covington Holy Cross vs. Etown at 1:30
-- Johnson Central vs. Mason County at 6:30 on WFTM
-- Allen County-Scottsville vs. Graves County at 8 on WLLE
I've got to see if I can find an Etown broadcaster. If not, the ol' KHSAA has the hookup.
OK, we've had a quite a day at Diddle. Today’s winners were Covington Holy Cross, 41-40 over Elizabthtown; Louisville Male, 86-81 over Henderson County; Mason County, 52-34 over Johnson Central, and Allen County-Scottsville, 39-36 over Graves County. So, tomorrow evening’s semifinals pit Male and Holy Cross at 6:30 Central and Mason County and AC-S at 8.
ReplyDeleteThe AP-poll voters didn't fare so well in predicting the Girls' Sweet 16 field. Only six of the Top 10 in the final poll and only three of other nine teams receiving votes made the state-tournament field. No. 3 Covington Holmes and No. 4 Louisville Butler didn't make it, and, today, No. 1 Etown and No. 2 Henderson County were eliminated.
ReplyDeleteSaturday's semifinalists are No. 5 Covington Holy Cross and three unranked teams, of which only AC-S even received votes for the final poll.
ReplyDeleteThere’s not much Sweet 16 history left in the final four. None of the semifinalists have won a state tournament, though Maysville, which was sucked in to the Mason County consolidation in 1991, did win the title in 1926. Otherwise, …
ReplyDelete— The purple and old-gold Male Lady Bulldogs previously appeared in the 1987 and '96 Sweet 16s.
— The red and black Holy Cross Indians won one and lost one in 1976 tournament and hadn't returned to the state tournament since.
— The royal-blue, white and gray Mason County Lady Royals have made six previous trips to the Sweet 16 but none since 1987.
— The red, white and blue Allen County-Scottsville Lady Patriots have made seven previous trips but none since 2001.
The Courier-Journal's Jason Frakes puts us on press row for the final moments of Covington Holy Cross's last-seconds upset of No. 1 Etown on Friday.
ReplyDeleteHoly Cross went on Saturday to snuff Male, 47-37, after the Lady Bulldogs had scored 78 and 86 points in their two state-tournament wins.
ReplyDeleteThen, last night, Allen County-Scottsville rallied from six down at half to send home Mason County, 49-42.
So, today at 2 Central time, we get the 32-3 Covington Holy Cross Indians vs. the 30-4 Allen County-Scottsville Lady Patriots for what would be the first state championship for either team. Though Holy Cross was the more highly regarded team among the AP voters, AC-S did beat the Indians at Lexington Catholic on Dec. 22, 61-54. (The girl who hit the last-second shot against Etown, however, apparently did not play in that game.)
ReplyDeleteOK, 2:01 to play to a state championship, and Allen County-Scottsville, with a 32-31 lead, draws a charging foul from the Covington Holy Cross girl who scored the winning bucket against Etown ...
ReplyDelete1:38 ... timeout, ACS ...
ReplyDeleteThe Lady Patriots' best player, Morgan Rich, has 20 points (of 32), including 14 in the second half.
ReplyDeleteMorgan Rich is headed next to play at UK.
ReplyDelete1:25 ... Rich misses, but an AC-S rebounder is fouled ... misses front end ... Holy Cross rebound ..
ReplyDeleteHoly Cross fouled ... hit and miss ... 1 minute to play ... tied at 32 ...
ReplyDeleteOh, my! Holy Cross steals the ball from Rich, the big AC-S star, and now the Indians call timeout with 19.6 seconds to go ... Still 32-32 ...
ReplyDeleteDiddle Arena has giant IGA logos on the court. I'm going to miss the Girls' Sweet Sixteen being in Bowling Green.
ReplyDelete5.5 seconds to go ... Abby Hassert underhanded layup for Covington Holy Cross and fouled ... 34-32, Indians ... free throw coming ...
ReplyDeleteArgh ... frozen feed from BG ...
ReplyDeleteWe'll just have to follow the action, oldtimeystyle ... Jason Frakes's Twitter feed ...
ReplyDeleteJason FrakesVerified account @kyhighs
Abby Hassert hits the free throw for a 35-32 lead. Timeout Holy Cross with 5.5 seconds left. AC-S must go length of court. Does HC foul?
3:40 PM - 15 Mar 2015
Not yet confirmed by JFrakes, but ...
ReplyDeleteBankofKentuckyCenter @TBOKC
Congratulations to the #HolyCross Girls Basketball team on winning state! We cant wait to host the #KHSAA #GirlsSweet16 next year! #NKYHoops
3:42 PM - 15 Mar 2015
Confirmed ...
ReplyDeleteJason Frakes @kyhighs
Morgan Rich misses from just inside halfcourt at buzzer, and Covington Holy Cross wins its first state championship, 35-32.
3:42 PM - 15 Mar 2015