By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
Cooper girls basketball coach Justin Holthaus had one practice session to prepare his players for a game against perennial power Louisville Sacred Heart in the state tournament quarterfinals on Friday night at Rupp Arena.
He told them rebounding and minimizing turnovers would be the keys to winning the game, but the Jaguars didn’t get it done in either of those areas during a 78-61 loss to the Valkyries, who remain in the hunt for a fifth consecutive state title.
“I didn’t look at the final stats, but (Sacred Heart) got on the glass a lot,” Holthaus said in the team’s postgame interview. “I thought, especially in the first half, we did a good enough job in the half court, but they got a lot of transition buckets and they got a lot of stuff off the glass.”
The stat sheet verified what the coach said. Sacred Heart scored 27 points off turnovers and won the battle on the boards, 37-23, with 25 second-chance points coming from offensive rebounds.
That’s what carried the Valkyries to their 18th consecutive state tournament victory. A streak that includes wins over Cooper in the 2022 and 2024 semifinals.
“Through the years that they’ve been here, they probably played us the best defensively,” Sacred Heart coach Donna Moir said of their state tournament games against Cooper. “They really get after us. They get on us and they don’t back down. One of our goals was to win the rebound margin and I thought we got the rebounds when we needed them.”
Cooper sophomore guard Haylee Noel scored 34 points in Friday’s game. That’s the fourth highest point total recorded by a 9th Region player in the girls state tournament.
Noel, who was named to the state all-tournament team, made only one field goal in the first half when Cooper shot just 21 percent (4 of 19) and trailed 31-20 at the halftime break. In the second half, she provided 26 of the Jaguars’ 41 points, but they never got any closer than 10 points on the scoreboard.
Sacred Heart’s all-state senior forward ZaKiyah Johnson, who sat out much of the first half after picking up two fouls, scored 12 of her 20 points in the second half to help her team stay on top. The Miss Kentucky Basketball candidate also had 11 rebounds, six assists, three steals and two blocked shots.
“I get really excited at the beginning of a game and my pride kind of gets ahead of me,” Johnson said. “But I kind of chilled out and just got back to normal.”
Sacred Heart’s other double-figure scorers were junior Brianna Wilkins (16) and sophomore Tootie Jordan (10). Cooper’s only senior starter, Zene Thompson, had 12 points, five rebounds and three steals in her final game for the Jaguars, the first team to win four consecutive 9th Region girls titles.
Sacred Heart shot 43.3 percent (24 of 53) from the field compared to Cooper’s 39.6 percent (19 of 48). There were 59 foul shots taken during the game. The Valkyries converted on 27 of 33 free throws while the Jaguars made 20 of 26 at the line.
“Obviously, anytime you end your season it’s very difficult, but you know Sacred Heart, they were very tough tonight,” Holthaus said during the postgame interview sitting beside four of his Cooper players.
“At the end of the day, I’m just proud of this group that we have up here, just their fight and resolve and how they competed every single day,” the coach added.
COOPER 9 11 21 20 — 61
SACRED HEART 17 20 14 23 — 78
COOPER (26-6): Brissey 1-6 1-2 3, Noel 10-17 1-4 13-14 34, Rankin 1-4 0-0 3, Scott 1-9 0-0 2, Thompson 3-6 6-10 12, Hooper 3-5 0-0 7. Totals: 19-48 20-26 61.
SACRED HEART (33-3): Jordan 3-9 4-4 10, Johnson 6-14 8-12 20, Wilkins 6-10 3-3 16, Osting 2-2 0-0 5, Frey 2-9 5-6 9, Carson 2-3 0-0 5, Gilvin 2-4 5-6 9, Ralston 1-2 0-0 2, Decamillis 0-0 2-2 Totals: 24-53 27-33 78.
Three-point goals: C — Noel, Rankin, Noel. SH — Wilkins, Osting, Carson.
Girls basketball state tournament at Rupp Arena
SATURDAY
George Rogers Clark (26-7) vs. Frederick Douglass (27-7), 11 a.m.
Louisville Scared Heart (32-3) vs. Danville Christian (26-7), 1:30 pm.
Championship game, 7:30 p.m.