The Henderson County Lady Colonels will take on Lyon County Tuesday in a tough first round regional championship matchup.
Traveling to host Hopkins County Central, the Lady Cols are seeking their eighth straight Second Region Championship.
Currently, Henderson’s overall record stands at 21-9, placing them as the third-ranked team in the region according to the KHSAA’s RPI rankings.
Those rankings, however, do not tell the whole story as the Lady Cols own regular season wins over both Lyon County and Crittenden County who sit ahead of them in the standings. That along with a perfect 8-0 record in region play is a stark reminder that when playing at its best, Henderson County is still the team to beat.
Playing at their best is just what the Lady Cols have done over the last month, winning their last six games and eight of their last nine. The formula for success has been steady senior leadership and hard-nosed defense. Another essential key has been the team’s versatility as they have won several big games in a variety of ways.
“Every one of these games has been a little bit different,” said head coach Stephen Haile. “In some of those games, we had to play really good defense. In the Calloway game, we held them to the low 40s, and the Crittenden game was kind of the same way. Then, the Lyon County and Owensboro Catholic games were more high-scoring.”
The other games Haile was referring to were back-to-back victories in late February in which the Lady Cols collected a 63-60 overtime win over Third Region contender Owensboro Catholic and handed Calloway County, the Fourth District Champions, a 46-40 defeat, one of its only two losses on the season.
The driving force behind Henderson’s success all season has been senior A’Tylia Green, who was named Second Region Player of the Year and is a candidate for Kentucky Miss Basketball. Previously, she was named a McDonald’s All-American game nominee as well.
Green leads the team in scoring at 16.8 points per game, while also being its top rebounder at 4.3 rebounds per game.
Green said that as long as her team takes care of the ball and takes advantage of its press and transition defense, they will enjoy success.
“I feel like if we just stay together as a team and actually play to our strengths, we’ll be okay,” she said.
One thing to keep an eye on for the Lady Cols is the health of their star player. The Kentucky State commit rolled her ankle in the regular season finale against Calloway County and has been nursing the injury since. As a precaution, she did not play in the Sixth District Championship game, in which Henderson defeated Webster County 73-9. Neither Haile nor Green expects the ankle to hamper her play significantly in the region tournament.
“I don’t think it will affect my gameplay much,” Green said. “Honestly, the adrenaline of the game will just take over.”
HCHS will still be without senior Brooklyn Gibson, who will not return from an ACL injury she suffered this summer.
Behind Green, though, is a solid rotation of role players, any of whom could step up on a given night. Junior JaNyla Locher and senior Addy Gish are next in scoring for the team at 7.6 and 7.4 points respectively. The sophomore trio of Callie Burnett, Jersey Gardner and Maggee Melvin average between five and six points per contest.
“We struggled playing as a team and sharing the ball, but we’re doing a lot better valuing possessions,” said Gish on how her team has been improving. “I think Maggee, Jersey and Callie could all three make a difference. They just all have to show up.”
Henderson County will open region play with a tough task at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday against Lyon County (25-7), and if the Lady Cols win, the squad will the winner of the matchup between host Hopkins County Central (19-11) and Hopkinsville (2-18).
Lyon County is led by last year’s Second Region Player of the Year, junior Piper Cotham. Cotham is a prolific scorer averaging 19.3 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. She recently joined the 2,000 point club and is shooting 35% from the three-point line. Fellow junior Courtney Collins is another player to watch. She leads the Lady Lyons with 8.3 rebounds a game and 61 made threes on the season, also at a 35% clip.
The Lady Cols will not have to face Crittenden County until the title game should both teams advance. The Second Region Championship is scheduled to be played at 7 p.m. Saturday, March 7.
Haile knows that defense is his team’s calling card and hopes the improvements that his team has made offensively will lead them to another state tournament appearance.
“We’ve done a better job of shooting the last month or so and hopefully that will roll over into the postseason,” said Haile. “We have to play to our potential and everybody’s got to step it up and do what they can if we want to get there.”
