By Ed Letsinger

An old sports cliché says that it is better to have a good defense than a good offense and the Boone County Lady Rebels proved that to be true on Tuesday night in their 48-32 win over Notre Dame in the Ninth Region championship game at Holmes High School.

Despite shooting just 31.4 percent from the field and turning the ball over 21 times, No. 2 Boone County (24-8) put the clamps on top-ranked Notre Dame (24-9) defensively.  The Pandas shot a woeful 22.2 percent from the field on 16-of-51 shooting and made only 9-of-20 free throws (45.5%).  Notre Dame simply never got into an offensive rhythm the entire night and also committed 20 turnovers.

“We were getting shots but we just couldn’t finish,” said Notre Dame coach Cheryl Darpel.  “They did a good job of putting pressure on us but we also had a lot of wide open looks in the post that normally fall and they didn’t tonight.”

Boone County coach Nell Fookes said the Lady Rebels concentrated on weak side and strong side help in the post to try to neutralize the Pandas big frontline of 6-2 Emily Drees, 6-0 Nicole Dickman and 5-10 Danielle Wachs.  Dickman managed to score a team-high 12 points, six coming on two 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, but Wachs and Drees scored only two points each.

“We started off a little shaky but defense and rebounding will never fail you,” said Fookes.  The Lady Rebels won the rebound war 40-34.

Boone County also avenged a 52-45 loss to Notre Dame back in January on the Lady Rebels' home floor.   

By winning their second regional title in the last three years, the Lady Rebels advance to the state tournament and will play the 10^th Region champion on March 23 at 6:30 p.m. at Diddle Arena in Bowling Green, Ky.

Two freshmen turned in big performances for Boone County.  Center Lacey Brasseaux scored a game-high 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds while point guard Jacy Bradley chipped in with 11 points and four assists and stayed confident running the team despite committing seven turnovers. Bradley played all but 31 seconds of the entire game.  Senior Ashley Griffith added 13 points, seven rebounds and three assists in a solid all-around effort.

“I don’t even really think about being a freshman out there,” said Bradley, who hit the winning free throw with 4.8 seconds left in the game in Boone County’s 42-41 semifinal win over Holy Cross on Monday.  “I just think about playing basketball against other players and it doesn’t bother me one bit.”

Neither team displayed much offensive prowess in the first half, especially the Pandas who did not score in the final six-plus minutes of the first half.  The Pandas shot 2-for-10 from the field in the quarter and an inexplicable 1-of-9 from the free throw line – a far cry from the 88 percent they shot for the game against Newport one night earlier in the semifinals.

After trailing 8-2 early, Boone County grabbed their first lead of the game at 15-13 on a Bradley lay-up and ended the half on a 9-0 run to take a 22-13 lead into halftime despite shooting just 31.0 percent.  The Lady Rebels never relinquished the lead.

Notre Dame’s shooting woes continued into the third quarter but Boone County started to warm up which spelled trouble for the Pandas.  By the end of the third quarter the lead had stretched to 35-18.

Notre Dame tried to make a run in the fourth quarter and cut the lead at one point to 42-32 with 1:12 left on a free throw by senior forward Stephanie Ward but Boone County closed the door by scoring the last six points on a basket by Griffith and four free throws by Bradley.