Sizing up the 2021 girls’ state tournament

I am deviating from our normal writing to share some thoughts on the 2021 girls’ state tournament. We are working with http://www.glicod.com through the tournament season both in photography and on-air commentary as time allows. Glicod will be carrying all Anderson County games.  Since we are primarily covering Anderson County — that’s why I am on board! — I will offer some thoughts on Anderson’s games here as long as the Lady Bearcats are alive in the tournament. We will return to our normal feature work at http://www.110forChrist.com next week.

It wasn’t as one-sided as some were expecting but Anderson County’s win over Southwestern in the Mingua Beef Jerky/KHSAA Girls’ Sweet 16 was a page out directly out of the Lady Bearcat course manual.

There were times when Anderson could not find the basket. The Lady Bearcats went 5-of-16 (31.3 percent) from the field in the first quarter, but thanks to a Tiffani Riley three-pointer that just beat, I mean JUST BEAT, the buzzer to end the period, still led, 14-13 at the first break.

The Lady Bearcats hit nearly 55 percent of their shots the rest of the way, finishing at 46.8 percent and used three basketball basics — defense, rebounding and deadly free throw shooting — to move into the Sweet 16 quarterfinals.

The Lady Bearcats harassed. They swarmed and even though the final score showed Southwestern within 11 points, Anderson was never in trouble after it took the lead for good on Rachel Satterly’s 3-pointer to put the Lady Bearcats up 19-16. That started a 21-7 explosion that put Anderson in firm control.

The Lady Bearcats led 37-23 at the half and never saw the lead pared lower than seven points the rest of the way. In fact, once the Lady Bearcat lead reached double figures with just under three minutes to go in the first half, the cushion dipped into single digits for less than two minutes.

It wasn’t a defensive effort that put up a slew of stats, but one that you knew was there because you saw it. While Southwestern was charged with only 10 turnovers — the same as Anderson — it sure seemed to be more. Anderson made the Warriors work for every shot and seem out of synch.

Frankly, it was a testament to the Warriors’ grit that they stayed as close as they did. Even when Anderson’s lead ballooned to 17 points on three different occasions in the second half, Southwestern didn’t quit. The Warriors kept raining threes, hitting 12-of-26. But at halftime, a team that had a reputation as a prolific three-point shooting team had connected on only 4-of-7. 

The Anderson defense didn’t let the Warriors get good looks.

Soutwestern did shave the Anderson lead to 48-41 with 2:49 to play in the third quarter and then came up with a steal but could not convert. Had the Warriors scored there, things might have really tightened up. As it was though, the Anderson team, so business-like all year, went on a 10-0 spurt to end the quarter.

It was all but over.

Anderson destroyed Southwestern on the boards, holding a 38-24 rebounding edge and the Lady Bearcats were deadly at the free throw line, sinking 27-of-34 (79.4 percent) while Southwestern struggled at the line, hitting 7-of-16 (43.8%). Anderson went 12-of-16 in the fourth quarter when Southwestern was sending the Lady Bearcats to the line. 

That’s old-school basketball, folks. 

Let me interject that I was not familiar with Southwestern's Alexa Smiddy before Wednesday. This girl can flat out play the game.  She had an off night shooting (5-19) but finished with 12 points and 10 assists.  THAT is getting it done at the point.

Friday, Anderson will have to beat an old rival, Franklin County, to move into the girls’ Final Four for the second time in school history. (The other was 2013.) When the teams played each other in the second week of the season, Anderson doubled the score (64-32) on the Flyers. 

You can rest assured it won’t be that one-sided this time. 

Guard Brooklyn Miles, who will be playing collegiately at Tennessee, rallied her team from five points down in the last minute of regulation as Franklin defeated South Laurel in the first round of the tournament Wednesday. Stellar guard play is imperative for a team to beat a team as good as Anderson is defensively.

Anderson has beaten Franklin the last three times the teams have played, including a 40-37 win over the Flyers in last year’s Sweet 16 before it was canceled. It was one that stung the Flyers particularly hard.

Anderson will be favored and if I had to pick, that’s who I would choose. The Lady Bearcats have so many weapons and any of them can beat you. But it’s a one-and-done tournament. Crazy things happen and that 32-point rout is ancient history now.

*****

Wednesday was the first time I had been in Rupp Arena since last year’s Sweet 16. While I applaud the KHSAA for being able to put on the tournaments under the COVID pandemic guidelines, I have to admit it just felt weird seeing people spread out around the lower arena. 

The crowd Wednesday was announced at 1,921, a number that is swallowed up by Rupp Arena’s size. But you do what you have to do these days.

And, yes, I am partial to Anderson County.  I have lived in the 40342 most of my life and wrote only about the Bearcats for 34 years, so that’s normal.  But what a great turnout for Wednesday’s game. By all accounts, the Lady Bearcats had, by far, the biggest turnout of fans for the first day of the tournament.

They will need another turnout to beat a Franklin County team that would like nothing better than end Anderson’s dream season.