Thanks to St. Elizabeth Healthcare Sports Medicine for sponsoring our girls’ high school basketball coverage this season. See all of our girls’ basketball stories here during our state tournament coverage this week from BB&T Arena on the campus of Northern Kentucky University.
By Terry Boehmker
NKy Tribune sports reporter
An official’s call that dashed Campbell County’s hopes of winning a quarterfinal game against Franklin County in the St. Elizabeth Healthcare/KHSAA Girls Sweet 16 state tournament on Friday was just like the one that ended the Camels’ season last March.
With her team trailing by three points, Campbell County sophomore guard Taylor Clos was bringing the ball up the court when an official charged her with an offensive foul for pushing off against a defender with three seconds left.
That foul denied Campbell County a chance to tie the game and Franklin County escaped with a 41-38 victory in front of a boisterous crowd at BB&T Arena.
Last year, Clos was called for the same foul in the final seconds of her team’s 60-56 loss to Mason County in the semifinals of the 10th Region tournament.
“It’s two years in a row,” Clos said of the offensive foul. “I mean, it doesn’t happen very often and when it does you wouldn’t think it would happen at that moment in a game like that.”
That wasn’t the only bad break the Camels had in the final minute of the state tournament game. On their two possessions before the foul, they had a pass picked off and the ball roll off the rim on a layup attempt.
On the inbounds pass after the penalty, a Campbell County player came up with the ball and coach Beau Menefee tried to call a timeout. But none of the officials heard the coach or saw him gesturing for a timeout and a player’s desperation shot from beyond the half-court line fell short as time expired.
“I’m proud of the way our team played in the second half, especially in the fourth quarter,” Menefee said. “The girls just kept fighting and fighting. I thought we had a chance at the end, but it didn’t work out.”
It was a low-scoring second half. The two teams combined shot 30 percent (10 of 33) from the field and netted just 26 points in the final 16 minutes of game time.
After Franklin County took a 39-33 lead late in the fourth quarter, Campbell County scored on a short jumper by Kyler Kramer and a 3-pointer by Taylor Jolly to chop the margin to one point, 39-38, with 1:20 remaining.
A few seconds later, Franklin County guard Princess Stewart scored the game’s final points on a driving layup that made it 41-38. The Flyers missed the front end in two bonus free throw situations after that, but Jolly missed a layup and Clos was called for the offensive foul on the Camels’ ensuing possessions.
“It’s kind of hard to say goodbye to our seniors based on that one call,” Clos said. “But it happens.”
Campbell County sophomore forward MacKenzie Schwarber scored 12 points and snagged 10 rebounds to post a double-double for the second straight game. She was named to the state all-tournament team.
Stewart finished with a game-high 14 points for Franklin County. She scored seven of her team’s 12 points in the second half.
“It was just another good high school basketball grind-it-out type of game,” said Franklin County coach Joey Thacker. “We got some stops when we needed it and some rebounds. And it sure would’ve been nice to make a few more layups and free throws, but we’re not going to argue at 6:30 (Saturday) night about where we’re playing.”
When Franklin County plays Mercer County in a state semifinal game at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Campbell County players will be watching from the stands.
Menefee said things could’ve turned out differently if his team had taken better care of the ball in the first half of Friday’s game when Franklin County made seven steals and took a 29-25 lead.
“Obviously, the difference in the ball game was the end of the first half when they got a lot of steals,” Menefee said. “If we had taken care of the ball in the first half, I think we’d be sitting here victorious.”
Campbell County committed turnovers on five of its first eight possessions and fell behind, 12-4, in the opening minutes of the game. The Camels settled down after that and took a 17-16 lead on a basket by Schwarber early in the second quarter.
Franklin County took the lead once again with an 8-0 run, but the Camels cut it to 29-24 in the final minutes of the first half with forward Alexis Keeton scoring five of the team’s last seven points before the break.
Schwarber scored all 12 of her points in the first half and didn’t miss a shot. She went 5-for-5 from the field with two 3-point goals. She didn’t get any points in the second half, but that’s when she grabbed nine of her 10 rebounds.
CAMPBELL COUNTY 12 12 5 9 — 41
FRANKLIN COUNTY 14 15 5 7 — 38
CAMPBELL COUNTY (25-10): Kramer 2 0 4, Clos 5 0 11, Schwarber 5 0 12, Jolly 2 0 6, Keeton 2 0 5. Totals 16 1 38.
FRANKLIN COUNTY (30-4): Frank 5 1 11, Kilbourne 2 0 4, Stewart 3 7 14, Arrastia 3 0 9, Cook 1 1 3. Totals: 14 9 41.
3-point goals: CC — Jolly 2, Schwarber 2, Clos.. FC — Arrastia 3, Stewart.
All the Best 🙂