[Stardust]

The way his Holmes girls’ basketball team had played recently against several of the area’s better teams, coach Scott Calcaterra knew it was capable of posting a signature win, and Thursday night it got it when it counted most.

Holmes got a free throw from junior forward Amanda Johnson with 44 seconds left to break a 49-49 tie and sophomore point guard Deena Kilburn added two free throws with 20.1 seconds left as the Lady Bulldogs held on for a 52-49 win in a 35th District semifinal game at Holy Cross.

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Holmes (16-12) advances to next week’s Ninth Region Tournament at the Bank of Kentucky Center on Northern Kentucky University’s campus for the first time since 2009. The Bulldogs also advance to play Notre Dame in Saturday’s district championship game at 6p.m. Notre Dame (22-5) advanced with a 69-24 win over Beechwood in Thursday’s other semifinal.

“One of the things I wrote on our board was we looked at the top 10 teams and we lost to Simon Kenton by eight, lost to Highlands by seven, St.Henry by eight ... so we were in every game, we just couldn’t get over the hump and I wrote, ‘It’s time to get over the hump,’” said Calcaterra. “We felt like we didn’t play like we were better than them the last time. We said we can beat this team and play with focus and I wrote on the board, ‘Play with swagger.’ We did that.”

Holy Cross (13-15) led 40-37 just 20 seconds into the fourth quarter on freshman center Ally Mayhaus’ layup, but Holmes went on a 10-2 run to pull ahead 47-42 with 3:47 remaining. Freshman guard Deja Turner had eight of her 16 points in the run.

Holy Cross tied it 41 seconds later when senior forward Jayden Julian, who tallied a team-high 18 points, got a conventional three-point play and junior guard Deasia Beal, who finished with 15 points, made two free throws.

Holmes went ahead 49-47 on junior guard Tamra Holder’s follow with 2:45 remaining, but Holy Cross tied it with 1:01 left to play on junior guard Hannah Tupman’s two free throws.

After Johnson’s free throw put Holmes back ahead, Beal had a layup attempt blocked by junior forward Salaah Jameela. Off the offensive rebound, Holy Cross guard Dajah McClendon missed a runner in the lane.

Following Kilburn’s two free throws, Holder, who finished with a game-high 19 points, including the 1,000th of her career, made a steal, but missed two free throws with 7.2 seconds left.

“It was an awesome win,” said Turner. “Our main goal through this season was to get to NKU and now we got there. We played as a team and put everything on the line and I don’t think any of us could walk off the court saying we didn’t do our best.”

The biggest lead in the game came when Holy Cross led 16-10 early in the second quarter.

The score was tied at halftime as the teams combined for 27 first-half fouls. Holy Cross had just one second-quarter field goal, by junior reserve forward Jacklyn Vieth, and Holmes had just three second-quarter field goals, all by Holder.

In Notre Dame’s win it raced to a 12-0 lead to start the game and led 25-5 after one quarter, and 40-12 at halftime. The Pandas had 13 players score, led by guard Olivia Voskuhl’s 14 points, eight coming in the first quarter.