The Henderson County Lady Colonels will return to Rupp Arena to compete in the 2026 Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Girls’ Basketball Sweet 16 after defeating Crittenden County in the Second Region Championship. This will mark their eighth consecutive appearance at the state tournament.
Last season, the Lady Cols defeated Marshall County in the opening round before falling to Danville Christian in the quarterfinals. This year, Henderson (24-9) will face the 11th Region champion Frederick Douglass Broncos (24-7) in the opening game of the Sweet 16.
The Broncos are led by a talented trio of double-digit scorers. 6-foot junior Jaelee Knowles leads the team averaging 13 points and seven rebounds per game. Behind her are senior Mikalee Bennett and freshman Tamia Waide, who each score 10 points per contest. In the final Kentucky Media Elite 16 poll, Frederick Douglass was ranked #8 in the state, while Henderson was 15th.
“They’re a very athletic team that’s battle-tested and has played a lot of good teams this year. They’re going to be a really good test for us,” said Head Coach Stephen Haile. “We haven’t seen a team a whole lot like them this year that has as much athleticism and length as they have.”
This will be the first meeting ever between the Lady Cols and Broncos, who will also enjoy the advantage of a short commute. Frederick Douglass High School is located in Lexington, just five miles from Rupp Arena.
Awaiting HCHS in a possible second round matchup would be the winner of the highly-touted matchup between Calloway County (33-2) and Assumption (24-5). Both teams were ranked in the top 10 of the final media poll. Assumption was #2, while Calloway came in at #5.
Henderson defeated Calloway County earlier this season, handing them one of their two losses on the season. Assumption knocked off five-time defending state champion Sacred Heart to reach the state tournament.
Despite the tough draw facing the Lady Cols, junior JaNyla Locher feels certain that if her team plays to its strengths, they will have a chance to win.
“I’m very confident,” Locher said. “Just as long as we stay down on defense and stay together as a team, I know we can pull out the win.”
Haile mentioned that while his team did well to win three close games during the regional tournament, there are still some areas of improvement that he and his coaching staff have identified.
“We need to work on our end-of-the-quarter situations a little bit…Free throw shooting’s been a bit of a sore spot even though we’ve worked on it a whole lot,” Haile said. “We need to execute a little bit better offensively, so we don’t go in ruts in the second half.”
All in all, Haile knows that the Lady Cols are good enough to win games at the state tournament as long as they meet the expectations they kept all season. He also understands the importance of not getting caught up in looking ahead, but focusing on the task at hand, which is beating the Broncos in the first round.
“As a team we feel like we can compete with them,” Haile said. “And we can win the game if we play up to our standard and kind of control the tempo and play more our style of basketball.”
Tipoff for the Lady Cols’ first round Sweet 16 matchup is set for 10 a.m. Central Wednesday.
Tickets will be available for purchase on Ticketmaster’s website and app. Subscribers to the NFHS Network will be able to watch the action live on khsaa.tv. Additionally, an audio feed will be available on khsaa.net.