Girls Sweet Sixteen Day One Recap, Pt. 1
The 2022 Mingua Beef Jerky Girls Sweet Sixteen Basketball Tournament is now officially underway as the first two games of the opening round have been completed. Wednesday’s early action saw the Meade County Lady Waves and the Bullitt East Lady Charges move onto the second round with thrilling wins at Rupp Arena.
KSR was in attendance for those two contests and will be back for the rest of the tournament, but before we go any further, let’s recap what went down earlier today.
Meade County 53, Boyd County 46
The first 90 seconds of the game featured three blocked shots, four turnovers seven missed shots and zero points by the Lions of Boyd County and the Lady Waves of Meade County. But eventually, Meade County broke the ice with a breakaway basket following an air-balled layup by Boyd County.
That was Meade’s last lead of the first half. Boyd’s tall frontline first asserted themselves on the ensuing possessions. Six-foot twin towers Audrey Biggs and Jasmine Jordan scored five quick points to take the lead. Coming into the Sweet Sixteen, Jordan and Biggs headline perhaps the best frontcourt in the state, averaging 28.3 points and 15.4 rebounds as a duo.
However, near the end of the quarter, Meade experienced a near-five-minute drought that was snapped by a Peyton Bradley triple. She’s the best 3-point shooter in the state of Kentucky, with 111 made threes and a 45% clip from deep to her name coming into today’s game.
The knockdown shooter drilled this one to make it an 11-7 game heading into the second quarter.
But Bradley was out-shined by Boyd’s most prolific shooter from deep, Emilee Neese. After Meade cut the lead to two early in the second, Neese knocked down back-to-back 3s to give Boyd its largest lead of the game at 17-9.
Neese hit another three a few minutes later that put Boyd up by 12 and got some help from Audrey Biggs to advance the lead to 14 before it settled on 13 by halftime.
Neese kicked off the third quarter with yet another 3-pointer to double-up the Waves at 32-16. But Peyton Bradley matched her with a 3 of her own to cut the lead to 11. And then Neese responded with her FIFTH three of the day to put the lead right back at 14.
Meade answered the flurry with an 8-2 run to get the lead back to single digits, 37-29, capped off by threes from Bradley and Aubrey Hardesty. Who needs the Golden State Warriors when you have first-round KHSAA Sweet Sixteen matchups like these?
Meade really broke through at the start of the fourth quarter. The Waves converted a pair of layups, stole the ball and drew a foul. Boyd called timeout as Meade had the ball down just five points, 40-35. “GREEN! WHITE!” chants broke out in force across Rupp’s lower bowl.
Out of the timeout, Peyton Bradley came up huge once again.
Meade’s fullcourt press forced a steal a few possessions later. Bradley was fouled on her way to the rim and hit one of two foul shots to cut it to 40-39. The next time down the court, a jumper by Katie Durbin completed the 14-point comeback and gave Meade the lead 41-40 with four minutes to play.
Boyd converted two more free throws to regain the lead with three minutes to play. The teams traded buckets and Jasmine Jordan put Boyd ahead with a layup with two minutes to play. On their next defensive possession, she wrapped up a Meade County player (who didn’t even have the ball) and threw her to the ground during a rebounding scrum, setting off a long discussion between referees. They assessed a common foul and technical foul, which were Jordan’s fourth and fifth. So she was done for the day.
FOUR free throws and the ball for Meade with 1:54 to play. They knocked down all four, including two from Bradley to lead 47-44 with 1:39 to play.
Meade then got to the line for two additional shots, but Biggs responded with a bucket to cut it back to three. Boyd just couldn’t hit anything in the final minute and had to keep fouling Meade. Meanwhile, the Lady Waves remained clutch at the stripe as Bradley swished six free throws in the final 95 seconds.
Victory for Meade County! They overcame a 14-point deficit to advance to the Elite Eight. As for the game totals, Peyton Bradley racked up 23 points, four made threes and shot 9-10 at the free-throw line. That’s what you expect from the state’s best shooting. Plus, she’s just a freshman. Bright future ahead for her.
Let’s credit Boyd County on a terrific season, though. Fought hard until the end and converted huge free throws to keep it a game down the stretch. Unfortunate how it ended, but a Sweet Sixteen appearance marks a successful season.
Meade County goes on to play the winner of Bullitt East and Bethlehem Friday at 1:30 p.m. The Lady Waves showed out in force at Rupp today, so I expect they’ll have another strong crowd in two days.
— Alex Weber
Bullitt East 67, Bethlehem 50
Led by Senior Gracie Merkle’s Oscar Tshiebwe-type performance, Bullitt East won their first game in the state tournament over Bethlehem 67-50. Merkle, a Kentucky Miss Basketball candidate, scored 22 points and grabbed 15 rebounds while junior Lilly Reid chipped in 21 of her own.
To start the game, Bullitt East took off with a 9-0 run that forced an early Bethlehem timeout. Reid scored seven of the Lady Chargers’ first-quarter points while Merkle chipped in four points and five boards. Their defense gave Bethlehem early trouble, but the Banshees settled in by the end of the quarter. A pair of 3s from Kasey Spalding and Carlie Thurmond cut into Bullitt’s lead down the stretch. At the end of the first quarter, it was just a three-point game.
From there, a back and forth second quarter started. Bethlehem continued to chip away at any lead Bullitt East would get. The Banshees scrapped their way to a two-point lead by way of six points from Emma Filiatreau. Merkle continued to be the difference inside. She protected her own paint while her teammates forced her the ball inside of Bethlehem’s zone. She finished the half with a near double-double of 10 points and eight rebounds. That was enough to help the Chargers take a 21-19 lead into the half.
Both teams found their offense in the third quarter. With that said, Bullitt East really seized control during that eight-minute stretch. After applying tons of pressure on the defensive end, Lilly Reid hit a pair of 3s for Bullitt East as a part of a 10-2 Chargers start to the half. To end the quarter, it was all sophomore Jada Hughes. After averaging 6.3 points per game this season and going scoreless in the first half, Hughes scored nine in total to end the quarter. After scoring just 21 in the first half, Bullitt scored 27 in the third to take a 10 point lead into the fourth.
Bullitt East would not relinquish that double-digit lead again. The Lady Chargers burned the clock down the stretch before throwing it inside to Merkle, who scored eight more points in the quarter. Following that close first half, Bullitt East would win the second half 46-31. At the end of the game, the duo of Merkle and Reid (45 points combined) was able to outduel the Banshee’s pair of Filiatreau and Thurmond (25 points combined) for the 17-point first-round win.
Bethlehem will return to Bardstown with a region title and a 23-8 record. Meanwhile, Bullitt East will prepare for their matchup against Meade County. That quarterfinal matchup will tipoff on Friday, March 11th at 1:30 p.m.
— Sam Gillenwater
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