By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
After sitting out nearly all of last season due to an injury, Dixie Heights sophomore Asia Carner got her first chance to play in the 9th Region girls basketball tournament Sunday and the speedy point guard made the most of it.
Carner played a key role in an impressive offensive performance that carried Dixie Heights to a 67-54 win over Newport Central Catholic in the tournament’s opening game at Northern Kentucky University’s Truist Arena.
The Colonels shot 54 percent (27 of 50) from the field overall and 57.1 percent (8 of 14) from behind the 3-point arc.
Carner made three treys to account for nine of her 17 points. She also had five assists, five rebounds and three steals in the victory that put her team in the region semifinals for the first time since 2022.
“I just try to play my role and do what I have to do to make my coaches happy and to help our team win the game,” said Carner, who was one of four double-figure scorers for the Colonels (21-8).
“We didn’t play as well on defense, but on offense we moved the ball and got open shots. That made up for everything else we did bad,” Carner added.
Dixie Heights made six of its first eight field goal attempts, including three triples, to take a 15-6 lead. The first half ended with the Colonels ahead, 38-26.
At the break, they were shooting 62.5 percent (15 of 24) overall and 60 percent (6 of 10) from 3-point land.
“They can fill it up quite a bit and they’re all skilled,” Dixie Heights coach Joel Steczynski said of his well-balanced offense. “The beauty of it is they don’t really force it. They allow the game to come to them.”
Dixie Heights took its biggest lead, 49-32, late in the third quarter. When a NewCath rally cut it to 59-51 midway through the fourth quarter, the Colonels ran off six straight points to regain control and ended up with a 13-point victory.
NewCath coach Trevor Steiner was proud of his four seniors who battled to the end and made it a closer game than their team’s 80-48 loss to Dixie Heights during the regular season.
“End of the third (quarter) there, when we made our run, it was because those girls looked at each other and said, ‘We’re going to make this happen,'” Steiner said. “I wish more than anything we could’ve gotten one more (win), specifically for those four seniors and for our program as a whole, but it wasn’t in the cards.”
The game’s leading scorer was NewCath senior Caroline Eaglin with 27 points. She ended her career with a school record 2,546 points and three consecutive 9th Region scoring titles.
The other double-figure scorers for Dixie Heights were seniors Bella Crawford (19) and Catherine Buddenberg (12) and junior Coralee Pelfrey (11). Pelfrey, who didn’t play at all last season due to an injury, also had a game-high 15 rebounds.
Dixie Heights will play three-time defending champion Cooper in a region semifinal game at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. In their regular season game, the Colonels shot just 36 percent from the field in a 61-39 loss to the Jaguars.
Steczynski didn’t know his team’s semifinal opponent after Sunday’s game, but he had an idea of what it would take to win.
“In the semifinals, we’ll just have to take what the defense gives us, which isn’t really unlike any other game we play,” the coach said. “We’ll just have to take care of the basketball and continue to be efficient with it.”
A lot of that will depend on Carner’s floor leadership that was highly effective in Sunday’s victory.
“She just has an understanding of what we’re looking for, an understanding of time and possession,” Steczynski said. “She has a maturity that’s far beyond a sophomore and that’s after sitting most of last year out.”
DIXIE HEIGHTS 22 16 11 18 — 67
NEWCATH 14 12 12 16 — 54
DIXIE HEIGHTS (21-8): Carner 7-13 0-0 17, Gibson 1-3 0-0 2, Pelfrey 5-9 0-0 11, Elkins 3 0 6, Buddenberg 4-9 2-212, Crawford 7-9 3-3 19. Totals: 27-50 5-5 67.
NEWCATH (16-17): K. Brannen 1-4 1-4 3, J. Brannen 3-9 1-1 8, Eaglin 10-20 5-6 27, McFarland 3-6 3-4 11, Thompson 1-3 0-0 2, Cole 1-5 1-3 3. Totals: 19-48 11-18 54.
Three-point goals: DH — Carner 3, Buddenberg 2, Crawford 2, Pelfrey. NC — Eaglin 2, McFarland 2, J. Brannen.