LEXINGTON – A thrilling run to the state championship game capped an amazing season for the Lady Marshals. Saturday evening they walked onto the floor at Rupp Arena to play Sacred Heart and at the end of 32 minutes of play in the final high school basketball game in the state of Kentucky, the Lady Marshals came up two points short in the 49-47 loss to the Valkyries.
Their appearance the title game was the first for Marshall County girls’ basketball since 1984 and they finish the season 24-3.
“I’m just a little bit frustrated”, Coach Aaron Beth said in his post-game comments. “I couldn’t ask for any more from my girls…effort…attitude…coachability. We came up one basket short. It’s part of life. I told them there’s going to be a lot of things in life a lot tougher than losing this basketball game.”
The game ended on a controversial “no call” when Presley Jezik found Cayson Conner who hit the floor along with a Sacred Heart player going for the ball.
Beth addressed a jump ball call that was changed from the original call of a foul and Conner getting knocked down on the last play and no whistles blew.
“That is very frustrating as a coach when they play that hard and do what they’re supposed to and just because it’s one point whatever seconds left, they don’t make the call”, Beth said, then added their (Sacred Heart) defense deserved a lot of credit.
Sacred Heart led 12-9 at the end of the first quarter and opened the second on a five point lead. Langhi and Conner combined for seven points to tie the game at 16. Olivia Kaufman and Langhi exchanged 3-pointers for a 19-19 tie and they trailed 26-22 at halftime following a Josie Gilvin 3-pointer for Sacred Heart just before the buzzer.
All 22 first half points came from Langhi with 12 and Conner with 10.
They opened the second half on an 8-0 run – the first four points from Jada Driver – to lead 30-26. Sacred Heart followed with a 7-0 run to lead 35-33. A nice put back by Sophie Galloway tied the game and Conner gave them the lead going into the fourth quarter.
Sacred Heart sophomore Triniti Ralston hit her fourth 3-pointer of the game to put the Valkyries back up by one and the back and forth battle continued.
With 2:58 to go, free throws from Langhi gave the Lady Marshals a 47-44 lead but it was wiped away when Ralston was fouled shooting a three and hit all three free throws to tie the game up again. Alexandra Wolff scored to put Sacred Heart up by two with 29.1 left on the clock.
In the final 10.5 seconds – Sacred Heart lost the ball out of bounds then got a hand on a three attempt by Driver – Gilvin was fouled but missed at the line – the in bounds play by the Lady Marshals ended in Conner and a Sacred Heart player on the floor and a final attempt by Driver as the buzzer sounded brought their spectacular season to a close.
Beth said he told his players tonight it’s going to hurt and it will go away with time, but in a week or so they will realize how special this season was.
“Win or lose, I’m just so proud to be their coach”, said Beth.
“Making it to the championship game is such an accomplishment”, junior Halle Langhi said. “We’ve gotten so much better throughout the season and I just love these girls with all my heart.”
“We all love each other, we have great chemistry”, said senior Cayson Conner. “A lot of us have been playing together since we were five years old so win or lose tonight, it’s been an awesome season and I can’t ask for anything more.”
“They did so many things so right as the year progressed to get to us to this point”, Coach Aaron Beth said.
Cayson Conner, Halle Langhi and Layne Pea were named to the All-Tournament Team.
Marshall 9 13 13 10 – 47
Sacred Heart 12 14 9 14 – 49
Marshall: Langhi 19, Conner 16, Galloway 6, Driver 4, Jezik 2
Sacred Heart: Ralston 18, Wolff 10, Bender 8, Kaufman 5, Gilvin 4, Pelayo 4
Marshall: FG 18/38, 3 Pt 1/8 (Langhi), FT 10/17 (Conner 4/6, Langhi 4/6, Jezik 2/2), REB 29 (Galloway 10), PF 10, TO 16
Sacred Heart: FG 19/50, 3 Pt 5/15 (Ralston 4), FT 6/8 (Ralston 4/5), REB 29, PF 13, TO 11
