Bluegrassrivals

The Walton-Verona High School girls' basketball team is headed to the Sweet 16 for the first time.

Courtney Sandlin hit a 10-foot jump shot with 19 seconds left to beat Anderson County 40-39 Saturday night for the Eighth Region championship at Gallatin County.

The Bearcats (25-8) will play Fourth Region champion Bowling Green in the first game of the Houchens Industries Girls' Sweet 16 at 1 p.m. Wednesday in E. A. Diddle Arena in Bowling Green. But for now coach Cory Miller wants to relish this accomplishment.

"Our girls have played so long and so hard, and this really is the pinnacle of high school basketball," he said.

Anderson County had beaten Walton-Verona, a school of about 450 students in four grades, to win the regional in 2010 and 2008.

After Sandlin's go-ahead shot from the baseline, Anderson County (23-9) called a timeout with 4.8 seconds to go, but a long jumper by Sydney Brown with 1.3 seconds left missed.

"(Sandlin's basket) was a broken play out of our offense," Miller said. "Last night against South Oldham she hit a 19-footer to send the game into overtime (Walton-Verona won 47-45), so she's made back-to-back big shots for us."

Sandlin, a sophomore forward, and senior forward Kelli Dixon each scored 13 points to lead the winners.

Freshman forward Eriel McKee led Anderson County with 23 points, but only three other players scored.

http://www.highschoolsports.net/local/lo...nty-40-39/

Walton-Verona 9 8 10 13 40
Anderson County 10 8 12 9 39

Walton-Verona (25-8) - Mullikin 2, Ginn 6, Taulbee 4, Dixon 13, Judy 2, Sandlin 13.
Anderson County (23-9) - Cann 6, Robinson 3, McKee 23, Brown 7.

3P: Ginn 2, Taulbee 1, Dixon 1, Sandlin 1, Cann 2, McKee 2, Robinson 1.

This was one of, if not the, biggest upsets that people didn't expect of the Regional championship games.

Congrats Walton-Verona.

LWC Wrote:This was one of, if not the, biggest upsets that people didn't expect of the Regional championship games.

This certainly is an upset, but I'm not surprised that Walton-Verona won. They are a very good team when they play their best. The blew out the host Gallatin County in the first round and then beat the favorite, South Oldham, in overtime in the semifinals. They have two great post players in Courtney Sandlin and Kelli Dixon. Anderson County is really young as well. They start a junior, 3 freshman, and an 8th grader. Their youth may have been a factor in this game.

Pretty impressive for WV considering they lost their best player mid season by transfer to New Cath.

Stardust Wrote:Pretty impressive for WV considering they lost their best player mid season by transfer to New Cath.

What player from Walton-Verona transferred to New Cath? I always thought their best player was Kelli Dixon. Maybe you are thinking of the boys.

blue1424 Wrote:What player from Walton-Verona transferred to New Cath? I always thought their best player was Kelli Dixon. Maybe you are thinking of the boys.

Vance Sullivan

That transfer definitely hurt the boys team but they battled through and made it too the regional tournament.

The girls did not have anyone transfer during the season. I don't think this was an upset. Most thought Anderson and Walton were the two preseason favorites. When the regional tournament started South Oldham was the favorite, but Walton won the matchup in the regular season with them. Walton, South and Anderson will probably be in the mix next year also. It will be a tall task for anyone to beat Anderson next year on their home floor during the regional tournament.