2018 17th District Girls Basketball Tournament
Elizabethtown Slips By For District Title
Yes! It was another 17th District Championship for the Lady Panthers and this one makes it a “Lucky Thirteen.” It doesn’t seem to matter how many players they graduate or how many or currently on college rosters, they always seem to be near or at the top of the Region and this season with a coach in only his second season with the team and a group of players, some holdovers from the last season’s Region Runner up team they once again took the District Championship, but to John Hardin’s credit “It Wasn’t EASY!”
Their path to get there was very familiar. A semi-final win over North Hardin on Wednesday night at Central Hardin with the Lady Panthers setting the tone early with their lightning fast attack which blitzed the Lady Trojans in the first quarter to race out to a 18-6 lead and then pouring it on in the second quarter with 28-points to lead 46-10 at the half. The Lady Panthers were paced by sophomore guard Whitney Hay, who looks like the next Elizabethtown Superstar putting up 23-points / 3-three pointers, while the other guys (or girls to be Politically Correct) like senior Karson Knight had 8-points / 5 of the team’s 15 assists and their tall inside players like Morgan Gattis and Leikyn Walker wouldn’t allow much Lady Trojan activity around the paint holding them to just 8-30 shooting and forced multiple turnovers throughout the game. So dominate were the Lady Panthers defense that even with their backups and subs in for some of the third quarter and most of the fourth, they were still able to force North Hardin into back-to-back turnovers one consecutive possessions twice.
Meanwhile, John Hardin and Central Hardin engaged in a different type of game in the second of the semi-final matches as both teams’ combined to put together 131-points. The Lady Bulldogs won the contest, 77-54, but it was much closer than the first game. In fact, it was far from a clean game played by John Hardin and coach Caleb Smith expressed concern afterwards with the rash of turnovers (22) by his team. Central Hardin had their share of mistakes, also, but despite being outscored in every quarter, were able to stay close for most of the game until late in the fourth when John Hardin finally made some distance in the 23-point loss. It was the third quarter when the Lady Bulldogs were able to make some separation when they were able to take advantage of seven Lady Bruin turnovers to outscore them 22-9. Senior center Rayven Peeples has been on a tear since returning from an injury early in the season and put up 23-points / 7-rebounds and even hit a three late in the game to help secure the win. The three was a valuable weapon for John Hardin and they hit eight of them including three by Brooke Graham.
The Championship game was a bit anti-climactic unless you were John Hardin. For a team which had NEVER beaten Elizabethtown in their brief history in the girls sport once again gave it their best shot. However, when coach Smith looks back at the game, he may find out that the Lady Bulldogs may have lost this game in the first eight minutes. Elizabethtown came out smoking and led by ten at 18-8 after one quarter. John Hardin answered and finally stopped the bleeding a bit trailing 26-18 at the half and both teams matched the other in the third as the Lady Panthers used their size inside and speed to lead 39-31 going into the final eight minutes, but the Lady Bulldogs fought back cutting the lead to just 43-41 after a 10-4 run highlighted by sophomore Brooke Graham’s two three’s. Graham hit another one to make it 47-46 Elizabethtown with 00:41 left, but the two teams traded turnovers and Whitney Hay made two of three from the line to finish out the scoring.
Final Score: Elizabethtown 49 John Hardin 46
Both Elizabethtown and John Hardin believe defense wins championships, so it came as no surprise that defense would help decide the District Championship. The Lady Panthers love to run, but defensively simply don’t let you score, while the Lady Bulldogs love a game in the forties or fifties.
The Lady Panthers victory (their 30th) helped solidify another 17th District Championship. The 13th straight for Elizabethtown and only the second straight for head coach Donnie Swiney. The last time the Lady Panthers didn’t cut down the nets was 2005, when they were eliminated in the semi-finals by Central Hardin.
Elizabethtown would win the next thirteen in a row and would go to three of the next four KHSAA State Tournaments from 2006 to 2009.
With that out of the way, the Lady Panthers have some unfinished business in the Region Tourney which will be at Central Hardin because last season was the first time since 2013 that happened when Nelson County defeated them in the Region Final.
