Thanks to St. Elizabeth Healthcare Sports Medicine for sponsoring our girls’ high school basketball coverage once again this season. See all of our girls’ basketball stories here and watch for state tournament coverage March 8-12 from BB&T Arena on the campus of Northern Kentucky University.
By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
The Highlands girls’ basketball team upset Holmes, 62-49, on Monday by doing all the things that coach Jaime Richey worked on in practice – playing tight zone defense, rebounding and limiting turnovers.
Holmes, the top-ranked team in Northern Kentucky and defending 9th Region champion, had won 30 consecutive games against local teams over the last two seasons before falling to the Bluebirds on their home court.
“With the big crowd we had and everyone yelling and the intensity of it all, everybody stepped up and we played as a team to get the win,” said Highlands guard Zoie Barth.
The final stats revealed the deciding factors in the game. Highlands shot 48 percent (23 of 47) from the field compared to 34 percent (19 of 55) for Holmes. The Bluebirds also finished with a 37-28 advantage in rebounding.
Richey said her team couldn’t have played zone defense any better against the Bulldogs, who entered the game with a a 64.4 offensive average.
“We switch it up (on defense) all the time and I thought the girls did an outstanding job with that (zone),” Richey said. “Sometimes we struggle rebounding out of it, but I thought they did a great job of that too.”
Holmes started out playing full-court pressure defense, but the Bulldogs didn’t get many turnovers out of it. They switched to half-court man-to-man and that wasn’t very effective either. They ended up making 12 steals and four of them came in the final five minutes of the game.
“We knew if we could break their press a few times and get easy shots they’d have to fall back and guard us half-court, then we could run our sets and just play,” Barth said.
In the first three quarters, the score was tied six times and there were nine lead changes. Highlands took a 35-30 lead midway through the third quarter when junior forward Brooke Dill swished one of her team’s seven 3-point shots. But Holmes pulled to within one point, 40-39, when senior guard Jaynice Stovall made an off-balance shot just before the quarter ended.
Highlands opened the fourth quarter with an 11-0 run to take a 51-39 lead. Barth scored six points during that surge with her final two field goals coming off steals.
Stovall sparked a rally for Holmes by scoring off two steals of her own and the Bulldogs cut the margin 55-47 with 2:45 remaining, but Highlands closed out the game with a 7-2 run.
The leading scorers for Holmes were Stovall with 19 points and senior forward Tyrah Englemon with 18. They made 14 of their team’s 19 field goals.
Highlands had a more balanced scoring line. Barth finished with 19 points followed by sophomore forward Chloe Jansen with 12 and senior guard Jenna Martin with 11. The team’s rebounding leaders were Barth, Jansen and senior forward Lauren Epperson with eight each.
“In the second half, we really rebounded the ball well and limited them to one shot,” coach Richey said. “That’s one thing we’ve been talking about — make them take the hard shot and then go rebound the ball. I thought everyone did that.”
HOLMES 15 9 15 10 – 49
HIGHLANDS 13 13 14 22 – 62
HOLMES (20-4): Keith 2 0 4, Englemon 8 0 18, Stovall 6 6 19, Stowers 1 0 3, Johnson 2 1 5. Totals: 19 7 49.
HIGHLANDS (18-7): Epperson 4 0 9, Martin 3 4 11, Barth 6 4 19, Little 1 0 3, Jansen 6 0 12, Dill 3 1 8. Totals: 23 9 62.
Three-pointers: HOL – Engelmon 2, Stovall, Stowers. HI – Barth 3, Epperson, Martin, Little, Dill.