Regional review, Friday 3/9
Notes and thoughts from Day 3 of the girls 12th Region Tournament:
- Southwestern defeated Rockcastle County 74-64; Wayne County defeated East Jessamine 74-51; Southwestern plays Wayne County for the championship Saturday night.
- Southwestern’s win is an upset by any measure. The Lady Warriors were believed to be capable of big things this season but came into this tournament with 13 losses. When they waxed Mercer County in their first-round game Monday, many said they could win the tournament if they played two more games like that, and they apparently played one of them Friday to beat Rockcastle.
- Wayne’s win over East Jessamine set up a rematch in the title game of last week’s 48th District final, which Wayne won 68-58 after grabbing an early 10-point lead. Southwestern won their first regular-season meeting 63-56; Wayne won the second 67-54.
- Both Friday night winners relied on balanced scoring. Southwestern got 21 points from Devin Fothergill, 19 from Stephanie Salyers and 16 from Chasidy Zimmerman. And while Sarah Rowe had 22 points for Rockcastle, Southwestern held Sarah Hammond and Mary Saylor to eight each. Wayne got 17 points from Meg Latham, 16 from Heather Stearns and 15 from Rachel Bristow, while Ashley Willoughby led East Jessamine with 22 points.
- Wayne will be trying to win its fifth regional championship and its first since 2004, when it beat South Laurel for the title. Southwestern has never been to the Girls Sweet Sixteen.
- The Other 15 (noteworthy scores from the rest of the state): Elizabethtown beat Bethlehem 54-33 and North Hardin beat Adair County 78-44 in the girls 5th Region to set up a title-game showdown between two of the state’s top five teams. … It’s all over for my alma mater, Jackson County, whose season ended with a 68-46 semifinal loss to South Laurel in the girls 13th. The Jackson boys did not make the regional.
