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 and watch for state tournament coverage March 9-13 from BB&T Arena on the campus of Northern Kentucky University.
By Terry Boehmker
NKy Tribune sports reporter
They didn’t name an all-tournament team after the 10th Region girls’ basketball championship game on Saturday so Campbell County coach Beau Menefee didn’t have to select a player to receive the most valuable player award.
It would have been a touch choice to make after Campbell County defeated Scott, 62-45, in the region final behind stellar performances by both senior guard Taylor Jolly and sophomore guard Taylor Clos, who scored as many points as the entire Scott team.
Jolly finished with a game-high 27 points and Clos had 18 for the Camels, who won their first regional championship since 2003 to earn a berth in the St. Elizabeth Healthcare/KHSAA “Sweet 16” state tournament.
Campbell County will play 8th Region champion Trimble County in a first-round game at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at BB&T Arena on the campus of Northern Kentucky University.
The lead changed hands six times in the 10th Region final before Campbell County surged ahead with a 17-6 run in the final five minutes of the third quarter. Jolly got it going by hitting two long 3-point shots and Clos scored the team’s next 11 points.
“Those two are pretty dynamic, especially when they’re both hitting shots,” coach Menefee said. “Scott came out in a zone that caused us some problems at the beginning, but once we started hitting shots they had to come out of it and that opened things up for us.”
Campbell County continued to pull away in the fourth quarter by outscoring the Eagles, 20-12, with Jolly and Clos once again leading the way. In the second half, those two players netted 33 of their team’s 41 points.
“Offensively, we were just driving on them,” Jolly said. “We learned that we could drive against them because our guards are really quick. So we learned to take the ball to them and that’s how we won the game.”
Changing defenses was another factor in the Camels’ second-half surge. They went with a 1-3-1 zone that seemed to confuse the Eagles.
“We were switching defenses a lot, which really messes teams up,” Jolly said. “We’d never played 1-3-1 against them because they have some good shooters. But we were forcing them into shots, which is exactly what we wanted them to do.”
Scott coach Rhonda Klette was disappointed with her team’s performance at both ends of the floor. The Eagles didn’t play nearly as well as they did in two previous games with the Camels that were close right up until the end.
“We didn’t do a good job (on defense) rotating out on Jolly and gave her shots,” Klette said. “We missed a lot of easy shots inside. We convert those and it’s a different game.”
The leading scorers for the Eagles was sophomore guard Anna Clephane with 14 points and senior guard Holly Krallmeyer with 11.
CAMPBELL CO. 7 14 21 20 – 62
SCOTT 14 8 11 12 – 45
CAMPBELL COUNTY (24-9): Kramer 2 0 4, Schwarber 4 1 9, Jolly 9 5 27, Clos 5 7 18, Turner 2 0 4. Totals: 22 13 62.
SCOTT (20-13): Secrist 4 1 9, Clephane 3 8 14, Kallmeyer 5 0 11, Stapleton 4 0 10, Dant 0 1 1. Totals: 16 10 45.
3-pointers: CC – Jolly 4, Clos. S – Stapleton 2, Kallmeyer.