By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
Forget that the Kentucky girls scored the most points ever against Ohio in “The Battle at the Border” Saturday in front of a near-capacity crowd at Thomas More’s Connor Convocation Center.
That wasn’t the difference in the blue team’s record 117-94 romp over the red-clad Ohio team that started a sweep in favor of the Kentucky teams.
It was “the defense,” said Kentucky Coach Joey Thacker of Franklin County. “We felt like we were faster, that we could get transition scores off our defense.”
Which is exactly how this played out in a 58-point first half and a 59-point second half. Time and again, Kentucky defenders flicked the ball out of Ohio hands, tipped it, deflected passes and got it going the other way.
Rowan County’s Miss Basketball Haven Ford, just 5-foot-6, and Danville’s 5-8 Love Mays, the game MVP, combined for 42 points and countless drives past bigger Buckeye defenders. Mays hit for 23 points, Ford 19.
“Most of this team is very versatile, they were great teammates and hard workers,” Thacker said.
Cooper’s Whitney Lind was right there with 18 points, seven of them in a minute-and-a-half burst just when Ohio had closed a 25-point second-half deficit to single digits. And then Lind closed it back on the Buckeyes with a three, a follow and her third straight score on an inbounds play that Ohio had trouble figuring out.
“Coach told us in practice that it works like that,” Lind said of the delayed roll to the basket after her teammates went in the opposite direction.
“She’s got a great feel for the game,” Thacker said of the Lehigh-bound Lind, Kentucky’s tallest player at 6-2. Actually, that was the case for all four Northern Kentuckians on the roster, Thacker said.
“They’re such good teammates and you can tell how well they’ve been coached,” Thacker said of the Northern Kentucky quartet of Lind, Abby Holtman, Noelle Hubert and Grace Brewer.
“I thought it was a little surprising we played so well together,” said Ryle’s Holtman of the team’s two days together.
On her way to the University of Cincinnati before finishing up here with six points, Holtman said this experience was the perfect preparer for what comes next. “I think this will really help me get ready for college – staying overnight with the team, getting up for early practice.”
Walton-Verona’s Brewer is undecided on her college choice but her quick hands and smart rebounding, not to mention eight points, would seem to make her a positive for a number of programs.
“It was cool to play in one more game (in high school),” Brewer said. “Usually only one team gets to win its last game.” But with this win, Brewer and her teammates did just that.
“It’s hard to come in in just two days and play like that,” she said. What she’ll take from this game, she said, will be “the memories.”
She didn’t slow down from there, hitting on 11 of them in their record-breaking offensive onslaught.
“That does give you a lot of confidence,” Hubert said, “and momentum. And it definitely ends high school on a good note, especially with a win.”
The win extends Kentucky’s series lead to 16-13 all-time . . . The previous record for a single-team scoring total was 114 points. The two-team total of 211 points was also a record. Last year’s game produced 183 points in a 99-84 Ohio win . . . Ohio MVP was 5-7 guard Rylee Sagester who hit five threes on her way to 17 points.
BOX SCORE
KENTUCKY 58 59-117
OHIO 42 52-94
KENTUCKY: Mays 23, Jackson 4, Ford 19, Thompson 9, Holtman 6, Dillman 3, Brewer 8, Guess 4, D. Thomas 6, Tandy 7, Lind 18, Hubert 3, S. Thomas 7, TOTAL 117.
OHIO: Sagester 17, Hinkle 3, Greene 7, French 4, George 3, Farris 8, Miller 6, O’Toole 2, Steele 5, Prows 11, Swisshelm 7, Razzano 5, Smith 7, Fears 9, TOTAL: 94.