If there was ever a more improbable finish for a Girls Basketball team after a slow start that might be the 2005 Washington County Commanderettes. Not that they weren’t talented to begin with. With senior power forward Brittany Edelen (who had committed to Kentucky) and Katie Filiatreau (committed to Georgetown college) and several younger players sophomore guard Stacy Tope and freshman Lee Goatley and older sister Jane Goatley. Head coach JT Burton in his second season as head coach knew he had a very talented team and after finishing with 76-wins in the last three seasons expectations were very high. What he had not anticipated was how difficult it would be with a rash of injuries that hindered or sidelined key players early in the season.
It all started with an 0-3 start, a season opening loss to powerful Elizabethtown, then a tough one-point loss to Marion County, where Edelen and Jane Goatley fouled out and Katie Filiatreau suffered a leg injury and Lee Goatley broke a finger that would eventually force her to miss a handful of games. Against Fort Knox four days later, Filiatreau tried to go against the Lady Eagles, but reinjuried the leg and missed the second half in a 58-52 loss and would miss four games in the Lexington Catholic Tournament as Washington County would lose four of five games there. Then on January 7th in a one-point loss to Nelson County, she ruptured an ear drum missing the Assumption game in what she called a crazy injury.
Then if things couldn’t get worse, on January 31st at Scott County Jane Goatley tore an ACL and was lost for the season just as the Lady Commanderettes had won four of their last five and appearing to turn the corner.
So after winning four of their last five, Washington County dropped their last two regular season games including an overtime loss to John Hardin to finish the regular season 13-15. When healthy, this was a very dangerous team. When they weren’t anyone could beat them.
After beating Bethlehem in the 19th District Quarterfinals to qualify for the Region Tournament, the Lady Commanderettes reverted by losing to Nelson County for the third time that season in the District Championship game, 60-46.
Going into the 5th Region Tourney, the chances of the Lady Commanderettes winning the tournament and qualifying for the third time in it’s history to play in the KHSAA State Tournament didn’t look very good. The eight-team single-elimination tournament was crawling with dangerous teams and with Central Hardin (the defending Region Champ)in their bracket, North Hardin and Nelson County waiting at the finish line, they would have to play their best and get a little luck along the way to accomplish that.
The chances of beating one really good team were good, beating two in a row were possible, but three straight in back to back fashion would seem very remote.
Round One turned out to be quite a game, as Trent Milby’s Caverna Lady Colonels played a very deliberate style and kept Washington County on their heels. In a back and forth affair which saw plenty of physical play, the Lady Commandrettes hit their free throws down the stretch including two big ones from Celeste Fowler and were able to squeeze by a 43-42. Against one of the best Caverna teams in recent history, the close result shouldn’t have been a surprise since the Lady Colonels had just beaten this same Washington County team less than two weeks ago, but the Lady Commandrettes had survived a huge test. Things were about to get even tougher as they were about to face the defending Region Champions in Central Hardin.
The Lady Bruins were on a roll, but against the fierce Terry Buckles inside game, Burton had his team ready and the Lady Commanderettes jumped out quickly when Tope started the game with a three, then Filiatreau followed up with a three and a basket until Central Hardin stopped the bleeding with a two from Tiffany Gilpin, but then Tope hit her second three, Edelen got two more baskets on putbacks and Filiatreau hit two free throws and Washington County had built a 17-4 lead with a little less than two minutes remaining in the first quarter. Lee Goatley added two more three pointers and only a miraculous three by Lauren Flood cut the halftime lead to just twelve at 32-20.
The Lady Commanderettes were playing their best game of the season, but Central Hardin, which had struggled against taller teams all season long had showed a flair for coming back and early in the third quarter they did.
Flood, who would finish with a team high 17-points got things started with a couple baskets and freshman Samantha Sheeran added two as well to cut the deficit to 38-32, but anytime Central Hardin got close Edelen had an answer. The six-foot center was simply too much for the smaller Lady Bruins as she finished with 25-points / 18-rebounds / was 12-17 from the field and along with Filiatreau, who had 19-points and was 6-8 from the field. Central Hardin got to within ten points several times and actually cut it to seven late in the game, but could simply get no closer as Washington County closed out the game with a 65-55 win.
Beating the mentally tough Lady Bruins was one thing, but waiting in the championship game on Tuesday night was an old nemisis in Nelson County. Two seasons ago, when Washington County won the Region Final, they faced Nelson County four times and went 4-0 against them including the Region final. However, 2004-2005 was a little different as in three meetings Washington County struggled against the Lady Cardinals going 0-3 including the 19th District Final when they lost 60-46.
This would be different. In a matchup of two District rivals with history, the Lady Commanderettes played hard and overcame the Nelson County Lady Cardinals in their fourth meeting by a score of 55-45. Washington County was able to slow Nelson County’s attack by going to a sagging zone where a defender would chase the ball handler anytime they closed on the baseline and it worked keeping scorers like Kristen Zutterman and Amy Kurtz under control much of the game. It was their first win over the Lady Cardinals that season and the second time they had beaten them in the Region Final in three years, but this one was bigger because it came at a time they needed to rewrite history so to speak and help erase that horrible beginning.
It was a great way to begin the week, but now their season had been extended and suddenly the Washington County team was one of the biggest surprises of the KHSAA State Tournament as they entered Game One against Betsy Layne. The question being, how would the 17-16 Lady Commandrettes do against the 24-8 Lady Cats? It didn’t take long to find out as Betsy Layne played a tough physical game and after a tight first quarter eventually went on a 10-4 run in the second quarter to take a 22-14 halftime lead over Washington County. Edelen responded by scoring 13 of her 26-game high points in the third quarter to cut into the deficit and Goatley hit two three pointers and Filiatreau hit six free throws down the stretch during the Lady Commanderettes 17-1 run to finally finish off Betsy Lane 51-38. Washington County finally took the lead when Edelen’s steal and a layup to make it 34-32 and then Goatley hit another three (she had two) and Filiatreau hit two free throws to buldge the lead to 39-32. The Washington County win cancelled out a great performance by Clark, who finished with 23-points, but had to take 27-shots to do it.
Now the Lady Commandrettes were two games away from finishing what at one time appeared to be improbable if they could get past Region One champion Paducah Tilghman (28-5). Like Betsy Lane, the Blue Tornado was a tough competitor and as the Friday evening game commenced, it was becoming apparent that this was the end of the road as the Lady Commanderettes lost, 66-53.
That was fifteen years ago and the Washington County girls basketball program has went through some changes. The program finished 12-15 the following season and then after Edelen graduated, the Lady Commanderettes went into a tailspin going below .500 for the next four seasons. Bernard Smalley took over for JT Burden and finally saw some success in a three season period from 2011 to 2013 when the Lady Commandrettes went to three straight Region tournaments. After that, Mike Holt took over for a season, then Lena Bramblett for four straight seasons and then finally Todd O. Claunch last season. During that time, the talent level had dropped off and the landscape of Girls Basketball had changed dramantically not just in the Region, but the State as well as volleyball started to bite deep into the female talent pool and caused a dramatic drop statewide to the sport. As a result, the girls program struggled to post double digit wins the last seven seasons.
Still, there was a time, fifteen seasons ago when the Lady Commandrettes were not just good, but the best in the Region and during a four season period from 2002-2005 were a threat to not only win the Region Tournament at a time when many programs were strong, but to make the final day of the State Tournament.
Yet, the 2004-2005 season will always stand out as one in which the Washington County girls basketball program really took off and made a mark for itself, not just because the season started out with a question mark after one month, but how it finished strong not only surprising everyone, but themselves in the end.
And when one looks back at their successful history during that time, it might give hope that it can somehow happen again sometime in the future. That the Washington County girls basketball team could once again rise to prominance in the Regional Landscape.
Head coach JT Burton once said that the Lady Commandrettes didn’t get that far with just one player. That it takes a team effort to get to the State Tournament.
Coach was right about that. It takes a team. And that’s what it’ll take to get back.
