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01-28-2012, 12:14 AM
Luck wins this one. Heads up by Rankin.
01-28-2012, 12:28 AM
In a game that featured four lead changes in the final 36 seconds, Kayla Rankin made the most of her last shot.
The sophomore rebounded her own miss and scored with one second left to give Perry County Central a 78-77 victory over Sacred Heart in Friday’s quarterfinals of the Republic Bank/Coca-Cola Louisville Invitational Tournament at Bellarmine University’s Knights Hall.
“I actually thought the clock had run out,” Rankin said.
But the shot clearly came before the buzzer, putting Perry Central, No. 4 in The Courier-Journal’s Litkenhous Ratings, into today’s 10 a.m. semifinal against No. 1 Manual (19-2).
The Lady Commodores (19-1) suffered their only loss last Saturday at Mercy, and coach Randy Napier said afterward that his players panicked a bit in the Louisville spotlight.
He was much happier after Friday’s victory.
“I’ve brought some good teams here and always came away with a loss,” Napier said. “I’m glad to get a win and advance to Saturday morning. Our kids deserve the opportunity to come back.”
Kendall Noble scored 28 points, hitting 8 of 8 shots and 12 of 14 free throws, to lead the Lady Commodores. She also had six steals and five assists. Rankin, whom Napier called “the top sophomore in the state,” added 18 points and eight rebounds.
Perry Central converted on 25 of 27 free throws (92.6 percent).
Jade Tubb hit 7 of 10 three-point tries and scored 30 points to lead the No. 20 Valkyries (13-9). DaiJia Ruffin added 17 points, seven rebounds and five steals.
“You can never count us out,” said coach Donna Moir, whose team trailed 74-64 with 2:22 left. “I thought when we got the lead we were in good shape. … We talked all day about getting stops. You can’t let a team score 78 points on you.”
Sacred Heart scored 11 straight points to take a 75-74 lead — its first of the game — on Ruffin’s basket with 36 seconds left. Noble gave Perry Central a 76-75 lead with 24 seconds remaining, but Kristin Matula answered for the Valkyries at 0:13.
Perry Central didn’t take a timeout, and Rankin got the ball around the free-throw line with five seconds left. She drove into the lane and missed her first shot but rebounded and scored in time to win the game.
“All of our games have been close, but we have to learn how to come out on top in big situations,” Moir said. “I just felt like we did so many things right down the stretch.”
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/2...|text|Home
The sophomore rebounded her own miss and scored with one second left to give Perry County Central a 78-77 victory over Sacred Heart in Friday’s quarterfinals of the Republic Bank/Coca-Cola Louisville Invitational Tournament at Bellarmine University’s Knights Hall.
“I actually thought the clock had run out,” Rankin said.
But the shot clearly came before the buzzer, putting Perry Central, No. 4 in The Courier-Journal’s Litkenhous Ratings, into today’s 10 a.m. semifinal against No. 1 Manual (19-2).
The Lady Commodores (19-1) suffered their only loss last Saturday at Mercy, and coach Randy Napier said afterward that his players panicked a bit in the Louisville spotlight.
He was much happier after Friday’s victory.
“I’ve brought some good teams here and always came away with a loss,” Napier said. “I’m glad to get a win and advance to Saturday morning. Our kids deserve the opportunity to come back.”
Kendall Noble scored 28 points, hitting 8 of 8 shots and 12 of 14 free throws, to lead the Lady Commodores. She also had six steals and five assists. Rankin, whom Napier called “the top sophomore in the state,” added 18 points and eight rebounds.
Perry Central converted on 25 of 27 free throws (92.6 percent).
Jade Tubb hit 7 of 10 three-point tries and scored 30 points to lead the No. 20 Valkyries (13-9). DaiJia Ruffin added 17 points, seven rebounds and five steals.
“You can never count us out,” said coach Donna Moir, whose team trailed 74-64 with 2:22 left. “I thought when we got the lead we were in good shape. … We talked all day about getting stops. You can’t let a team score 78 points on you.”
Sacred Heart scored 11 straight points to take a 75-74 lead — its first of the game — on Ruffin’s basket with 36 seconds left. Noble gave Perry Central a 76-75 lead with 24 seconds remaining, but Kristin Matula answered for the Valkyries at 0:13.
Perry Central didn’t take a timeout, and Rankin got the ball around the free-throw line with five seconds left. She drove into the lane and missed her first shot but rebounded and scored in time to win the game.
“All of our games have been close, but we have to learn how to come out on top in big situations,” Moir said. “I just felt like we did so many things right down the stretch.”
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/2...|text|Home
01-28-2012, 12:35 AM
lillianhidgepork Wrote:Luck wins this one. Heads up by Rankin.
Definitely luck.
This is the first and only time this season that Kayla Rankin has ever scored off of a put-back.
I bet she couldn't do it again if she tried.
01-28-2012, 12:45 AM
They will need some luck in the morning
01-28-2012, 04:46 AM
Kayla Rankin rebounded her own miss and scored with 0.9 seconds left to give No. 4 Perry Central (19-1) a 78-77 victory in the quarterfinals against No. 15 Sacred Heart. Rankin was 10-for-10 from the free-throw line and ended up with 18 points and eight rebounds. Teammate Kendall Noble was 12-for-14 from the line and had 28 points, six steals and five assists. Jade Tubb hit seven three-pointers and scored 30 points for the Valkyries (13-9).
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/01/27/20464...rylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/01/27/20464...rylink=cpy
01-28-2012, 04:46 AM
1/27/2012
Perry Co. Central 78
Sacred Heart 77
Perry Co. Central 19 24 16 19 78
Sacred Heart 15 22 14 26 77
Louisville Invitational Tournament at Bellarmine
Perry Co. Central (19-1) -- Smith 11, Rankin 18, Noble 28, Crawford 6, Back 13, Napier 2.
Sacred Heart (13-9) -- Ruffin 17, Tubb 30, Matula 9, Merriweather 14, Walsh 7.
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2010/11/23/15374...rylink=cpy
Perry Co. Central 78
Sacred Heart 77
Perry Co. Central 19 24 16 19 78
Sacred Heart 15 22 14 26 77
Louisville Invitational Tournament at Bellarmine
Perry Co. Central (19-1) -- Smith 11, Rankin 18, Noble 28, Crawford 6, Back 13, Napier 2.
Sacred Heart (13-9) -- Ruffin 17, Tubb 30, Matula 9, Merriweather 14, Walsh 7.
Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2010/11/23/15374...rylink=cpy
01-28-2012, 08:03 AM
From Louisville CatholicSports.com
Perry Co. Central defeats Sacred Heart in LIT quarterfinals
Sacred Heart Academy certainly has a flair for the dramatic when it comes to the Republic Bank/Coca Cola Louisville Invitational Tournament.
One year after DuPont Manual eliminated the Valkyries from the LIT with a last-second shot in the semifinal round, SHA once again found itself on the wrong side of a heartbreaking buzzer beater on Friday night, as Perry County Central defeated Sacred Heart 78-77 after the Lady Commodores' Kayla Rankin rebounded and laid in her own miss with one second remaining.
PCC's game-winning putback came after the Valkyries diligently erased a ten-point, 74-64 deficit with 2:22 left in the game, rallied with an impressive 11-0 run and took its first lead of the contest, 75-74, on sophomore DaiJia Ruffin's cockeyed turnaround jumper with 34 seconds left.
Trailing for the first time, Lady Commodores' senior guard Kendall Noble calmly weaved her way through the SHA defense on the other end and got to the basket to put Perry Co. Central back up 76-75 with 23 seconds to go. Noble, who went 8-for-8 from the floor and 12-of-14 from the free throw line from the game, finished with a team-high 28 points, 6 steals and 5 assists.
In front of a frenzied crowd at Bellarmine University's Knights Hall, Sacred Heart made its way back to the other end of the floor. There, Valkyries junior Kristin Matula looked over to the SHA bench anticipating a timeout call, but it never came. Being an opportunist, Matula took matters into her own hands, drove abruptly past a flat-footed PCC defense and glided for another go-ahead layup that put Sacred Heart up 77-76 with 13 seconds on the clock.
Down a point, Perry County Central also elected to continue play without a timeout. After catching the ball off the inbounds, PCC junior Whitney Back brought it across the halfcourt line and delivered a bounce pass to Rankin just inside the arc. Upon receving the ball, Rankin dribbled once, pulled up, made awkward yet incidental contact with Matula and took an offbalanced shot toward the basket from the free throw line area.
The ball, which hung on the front of the rim for less than a second, fell straight down and into the hands of a following Rankin, who tipped in the miss with one second left and delivered a crushing, eliminating blow to a Sacred Heart squad that worked vehemently to get back within striking distance all game long.
"You can never count us out," said Sacred Heart head coach Donna Moir. "When we got the lead, I thought we were in good shape and we just gave up two easy baskets. We talked all day about getting stops. And you can't let a team score 78 points on you."
Moir then attempted to describe the chaos that ensued during the game's final moments.
"I tried to get a timeout after Kristin (Matula) scored, but it's really hard (to do that) because we were pressing them to get back into the game," she said. "But (Perry County Central) got the ball out quick and got it down the floor before we could look up."
Sacred Heart was fortunate to even be in a position to stage a comeback. Despite 25 made free throws by the Lady Commodores, SHA stayed afloat for most of the game behind the hot shooting of senior guard Jade Tubb. She scored a game-high 30 points and knocked down all 7 of the Valkyries' 3-pointers during the game.
Tubb's sixth trey of the game got Sacred Heart within 74-67 of Perry County Central with 1:50 remaining. And after Matula converted an old-fashioned three-point play to cut PCC's lead to 74-70, and the Valkyries forced a tie up and jump ball in its favor, Tubb drilled 3-pointer No. 7 bringing the Valkyries within just one point at 74-73 with 1:03 left.
"To her credit, she made a lot of tough (3-pointers)," said Moir. "To shoot 7-of-10 from the three point line is amazing, but she also played tough defense against Noble and played the whole game. That's the leadership that you want out of a senior."
The Lady 'Dores would throw the ball away on its ensuing possession, leading to Ruffin's go-ahead and bucket and the aforementioned craziness that took place during the game's final two minutes.
Sacred Heart struggled with Perry County Central's press early and the Lady Commodores took advantage by jumping out quickly to a 6-0 lead. The struggles continued throughout the first quarter and first half, which came as a surprise to Moir.
"We didn't come out and attack their press like we normally do. Most of the time when a team presses I'm like, 'Bring it on'," said Moir. "But we just looked real timid against their press."
Perry County Central got up my as much as eight points in the second quarter and led 27-19 with 5:31 left in the first half when 5-foot-10 senior Katelyn Smith knocked down a short jumper during a high-tempo second quarter. The Lady Commodores eventually made it to halftime with a 43-37 advantage.
Both teams came out of their respective locker rooms looking a bit shaky after a fast-paced first half, but PCC eventually settled in and took its largest lead of the game, a commanding 50-39 margin over Sacred Heart on a bucket by Noble with 3:51 left in the third quarter. The Valkyries rallied yet again and cut the lead to 56-51, but Lady Commodores' 5-foot-5 guard Back drilled a 3-pointer with three seconds to go in the third period, just as she did in the first quarter, and PCC went up 59-51 heading into quarter No. 4.
Perry County Central stretched its lead back to 11 points midway through the fourth on a Rankin layup, but SHA answered the bell one last time and began to mount its furious comeback. Although the effort fell short, Moir said she was confident her team was always in the game.
"Even when we were down ten with like two minutes to go, I never thought, 'This is over.' I felt like we were capable of making some shots, and we did," said Moir. "(Perry County Central's) a good ball team....but so are we. That's what I told the kids; I said, 'I hope we see them again in March'."
SHA sophomores Ruffin and Raven Merriweather had strong games despite the loss. The duo combined for 31 points (on 12-of-25 shooting), 15 rebounds, 8 assists, 6 steals and 5 blocked shots. Matula had 9 points and 2 assists in 15 minutes of action.
The PCC hero Rankin finished with 18 points and was 10-of-10 from the free throw line. She also pulled down 8 boards. The Lady Commodores put four players in double figures, as Noble (28), Rankin (18), Back (13) and Smith (11) accounted for a heavy majority of the offense in the victory.
Sacred Heart, which has seen its share of close-game losses this season, took another lump on Friday with the emotional defeat. Moir, however, said this loss felt a little different. And she believes her team might have turned a corner following the events of the LIT quarterfinal game against Perry Co. Central.
"I can't tell you how much I enjoy coaching this team," said Moir. "And I felt like today, we really came together. It's like we're finally starting to believe that we can be a great team. And t hat's what I came away from (this game today). It's been a fun year to coach them because they want to learn, they want to get better. They believe. And they never counted themselves out today."
SHA (13-9), which had won 4 out of its last 5 games prior to Friday's loss, is scheduled to play again on Tuesday against 27 District foe Waggener (10-8).
Perry County Central (19-1) advances to Saturday morning's LIT semifinals against DuPont Manual (19-2). The winner will face the Mercy Academy-Marion County in Saturday night's champioship game.
This year's LIT final four features the state's top four-ranked girls basketball teams.
Perry Co. Central defeats Sacred Heart in LIT quarterfinals
Sacred Heart Academy certainly has a flair for the dramatic when it comes to the Republic Bank/Coca Cola Louisville Invitational Tournament.
One year after DuPont Manual eliminated the Valkyries from the LIT with a last-second shot in the semifinal round, SHA once again found itself on the wrong side of a heartbreaking buzzer beater on Friday night, as Perry County Central defeated Sacred Heart 78-77 after the Lady Commodores' Kayla Rankin rebounded and laid in her own miss with one second remaining.
PCC's game-winning putback came after the Valkyries diligently erased a ten-point, 74-64 deficit with 2:22 left in the game, rallied with an impressive 11-0 run and took its first lead of the contest, 75-74, on sophomore DaiJia Ruffin's cockeyed turnaround jumper with 34 seconds left.
Trailing for the first time, Lady Commodores' senior guard Kendall Noble calmly weaved her way through the SHA defense on the other end and got to the basket to put Perry Co. Central back up 76-75 with 23 seconds to go. Noble, who went 8-for-8 from the floor and 12-of-14 from the free throw line from the game, finished with a team-high 28 points, 6 steals and 5 assists.
In front of a frenzied crowd at Bellarmine University's Knights Hall, Sacred Heart made its way back to the other end of the floor. There, Valkyries junior Kristin Matula looked over to the SHA bench anticipating a timeout call, but it never came. Being an opportunist, Matula took matters into her own hands, drove abruptly past a flat-footed PCC defense and glided for another go-ahead layup that put Sacred Heart up 77-76 with 13 seconds on the clock.
Down a point, Perry County Central also elected to continue play without a timeout. After catching the ball off the inbounds, PCC junior Whitney Back brought it across the halfcourt line and delivered a bounce pass to Rankin just inside the arc. Upon receving the ball, Rankin dribbled once, pulled up, made awkward yet incidental contact with Matula and took an offbalanced shot toward the basket from the free throw line area.
The ball, which hung on the front of the rim for less than a second, fell straight down and into the hands of a following Rankin, who tipped in the miss with one second left and delivered a crushing, eliminating blow to a Sacred Heart squad that worked vehemently to get back within striking distance all game long.
"You can never count us out," said Sacred Heart head coach Donna Moir. "When we got the lead, I thought we were in good shape and we just gave up two easy baskets. We talked all day about getting stops. And you can't let a team score 78 points on you."
Moir then attempted to describe the chaos that ensued during the game's final moments.
"I tried to get a timeout after Kristin (Matula) scored, but it's really hard (to do that) because we were pressing them to get back into the game," she said. "But (Perry County Central) got the ball out quick and got it down the floor before we could look up."
Sacred Heart was fortunate to even be in a position to stage a comeback. Despite 25 made free throws by the Lady Commodores, SHA stayed afloat for most of the game behind the hot shooting of senior guard Jade Tubb. She scored a game-high 30 points and knocked down all 7 of the Valkyries' 3-pointers during the game.
Tubb's sixth trey of the game got Sacred Heart within 74-67 of Perry County Central with 1:50 remaining. And after Matula converted an old-fashioned three-point play to cut PCC's lead to 74-70, and the Valkyries forced a tie up and jump ball in its favor, Tubb drilled 3-pointer No. 7 bringing the Valkyries within just one point at 74-73 with 1:03 left.
"To her credit, she made a lot of tough (3-pointers)," said Moir. "To shoot 7-of-10 from the three point line is amazing, but she also played tough defense against Noble and played the whole game. That's the leadership that you want out of a senior."
The Lady 'Dores would throw the ball away on its ensuing possession, leading to Ruffin's go-ahead and bucket and the aforementioned craziness that took place during the game's final two minutes.
Sacred Heart struggled with Perry County Central's press early and the Lady Commodores took advantage by jumping out quickly to a 6-0 lead. The struggles continued throughout the first quarter and first half, which came as a surprise to Moir.
"We didn't come out and attack their press like we normally do. Most of the time when a team presses I'm like, 'Bring it on'," said Moir. "But we just looked real timid against their press."
Perry County Central got up my as much as eight points in the second quarter and led 27-19 with 5:31 left in the first half when 5-foot-10 senior Katelyn Smith knocked down a short jumper during a high-tempo second quarter. The Lady Commodores eventually made it to halftime with a 43-37 advantage.
Both teams came out of their respective locker rooms looking a bit shaky after a fast-paced first half, but PCC eventually settled in and took its largest lead of the game, a commanding 50-39 margin over Sacred Heart on a bucket by Noble with 3:51 left in the third quarter. The Valkyries rallied yet again and cut the lead to 56-51, but Lady Commodores' 5-foot-5 guard Back drilled a 3-pointer with three seconds to go in the third period, just as she did in the first quarter, and PCC went up 59-51 heading into quarter No. 4.
Perry County Central stretched its lead back to 11 points midway through the fourth on a Rankin layup, but SHA answered the bell one last time and began to mount its furious comeback. Although the effort fell short, Moir said she was confident her team was always in the game.
"Even when we were down ten with like two minutes to go, I never thought, 'This is over.' I felt like we were capable of making some shots, and we did," said Moir. "(Perry County Central's) a good ball team....but so are we. That's what I told the kids; I said, 'I hope we see them again in March'."
SHA sophomores Ruffin and Raven Merriweather had strong games despite the loss. The duo combined for 31 points (on 12-of-25 shooting), 15 rebounds, 8 assists, 6 steals and 5 blocked shots. Matula had 9 points and 2 assists in 15 minutes of action.
The PCC hero Rankin finished with 18 points and was 10-of-10 from the free throw line. She also pulled down 8 boards. The Lady Commodores put four players in double figures, as Noble (28), Rankin (18), Back (13) and Smith (11) accounted for a heavy majority of the offense in the victory.
Sacred Heart, which has seen its share of close-game losses this season, took another lump on Friday with the emotional defeat. Moir, however, said this loss felt a little different. And she believes her team might have turned a corner following the events of the LIT quarterfinal game against Perry Co. Central.
"I can't tell you how much I enjoy coaching this team," said Moir. "And I felt like today, we really came together. It's like we're finally starting to believe that we can be a great team. And t hat's what I came away from (this game today). It's been a fun year to coach them because they want to learn, they want to get better. They believe. And they never counted themselves out today."
SHA (13-9), which had won 4 out of its last 5 games prior to Friday's loss, is scheduled to play again on Tuesday against 27 District foe Waggener (10-8).
Perry County Central (19-1) advances to Saturday morning's LIT semifinals against DuPont Manual (19-2). The winner will face the Mercy Academy-Marion County in Saturday night's champioship game.
This year's LIT final four features the state's top four-ranked girls basketball teams.
01-28-2012, 10:48 AM
Pretty good win for Perry but will have their work cut out for them this morning, Rankin is the best sophmore in the state and was a first team vollyball player in Kentucky, They need to slow the pace of the game down but will learn from their mistakes, They need to win today to get their confendence that they can beat a top team.
01-28-2012, 12:55 PM
The LIT Final Four is the top 4 ranked teams in the state. That's one heck of a tournament!!!
01-28-2012, 04:20 PM
Congrats PCC All-Stars. No doubt they are the best assembled team in the state of Kentucky.
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