There were plenty of eyes on Owensboro Catholic sophomore Becca Greenwell, who made her highly anticipated Houchens/KHSAA Girls’ Sweet Sixteen debut Thursday against Clay County at E.A. Diddle Arena.
The state’s leading scorer at more than 32 points a game, Greenwell’s performance was monitored from the stands by coaches from Duke, Kentucky, Louisville and Western Kentucky.
And while the Lady Aces fell 61-48, Greenwell didn’t disappoint. The 6-foot-1-inch guard finished 10 for 24 from the field, 6 for 7 from the free throw line - scoring a game-high 28 points with six rebounds, two blocks and three steals.
“I’m glad she got a chance to play in the big show,” Owensboro Catholic coach Ray Zuberer said. “There are a lot of people that haven’t seen Becca play. There are a lot of people that have heard about her. We go to Lexington and we go to Louisville, so people in those areas get to see her play. There are a lot of other areas that don’t get to see her play.
“I was glad to see we were able to make it to the tournament so we could showcase her talent.”
Despite the loss, Greenwell said the run to the school’s first Sweet 16 trip since 1986, which included an All ‘A’ state championship, was a really good experience.
“We accomplished all of our goals this season,” Greenwell said. “Being able to get to the state tournament has been a big goal of ours all year. Even though we didn’t win, I’m proud of the team for the season we’ve had. We tried our best. It just didn’t turn out the way we wanted to.”
-- Click here for photos of Thursday's tournament action.
Calloway County’s Averee Fields has been hidden in the southwestern corner of the state for much of her career. Her abilities have earned her a scholarship to play basketball at the University of West Virginia, but this weekend, she’s excited to be showing off her skills on the biggest stage in the commonwealth.
“Just to get to state I think is a great opportunity,” the senior said after her team’s 62-57 overtime win Thursday against Newport Central Catholic. “I’m very excited, I’m very proud of my team. We stuck together this year. We’ve gotten a lot of wins and had some close ones. I think this was another close one that we knew we had to get through and pull out.”
Fields didn’t score in overtime at E.A. Diddle Arena - but still had almost half her team’s points with 30. The 6-foot forward also pulled down nine rebounds, had six steals, five blocks and four assists.
“I started off a little shaky for my team and Alyssa (Cunningham) pulled me through, ‘We can do this. We’ve been through this. We can do this.’ She just pumped me up and we were ready to go,” Fields said. “Before the game I was like, ‘Oh, I’m not nervous. I’m not nervous.’ But there’s always a little bit of nerves coming into the state tournament. I just couldn’t really handle the ball as well as I usually can, but I’m thankful to sort of get my head straight.”
The win for the Lady Lakers (31-1) was their first at the state tournament since 1993.
Rockcastle County coach Chrysti Noble didn’t mince words when looking at the stat sheet following her team’s 55-52 win over Madison Central.
When asked about her team shooting 14 for 24 from the line, Noble had one simple response, “That’s terrible.”
“It’s not like we are inexperienced, either,” Noble continued. “We’ve been here, so that means we’re not focused when we come in here. Free throws and layups win ball games. I told them after the game, ‘If we made (those shots) then it might not have been so tight.’ ”
Source:
No comments:
Post a Comment