11TH DISTRICT GIRLS' BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: Lady Waves hold Frederick Fraize to six points (02/21)

Facing Cloverport Frederick Fraize in the Girls’ 11th District Basketball Tournament semifinals gave the Meade County Lady Waves plenty of chances to see what they’ll be facing in two nights.

The Lady Aces ran a zone defense Monday night, something the host Lady Waves could expect to see Thursday after rolling to a 64-6 win.

Top-seeded Meade County (17-14) will play the second-seeded Hancock County Lady Hornets – who beat Breckinridge County, 72-52 in Monday’s second semifinal – for the title at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

“Both teams play a lot of zone, and we were able to work on our zone offense that we’ll use a lot of Thursday night,” said Meade County freshman forward Morgan Turner, who scored 14 points. “We all worked as hard as we could and we worked on our game. We made our game better.”

Meade County outscored Frederick Fraize, 27-0 in the second half.

The Lady Aces (6-17) had plenty of chances as the Lady Waves used a 2-3 zone to keep things from getting too much out of hand, but they couldn’t capitalize.

“We played some 2-3, and we rarely if ever play the 2-3,” said Meade County coach Josh Hurt. “They got plenty of shots and had opportunities and chances to score. You just let the chips fall where they may. Our intent was to drop back and not press them. But you still want to play. There’s a fine line you walk. You don’t want to just let people have stuff, but you still want to be sportsmanlike.”

Hurt subbed liberally throughout the night, using three rotations and playing every reserve.

It didn’t matter how many subs Hurt used, this game was going to be a lopsided affair.

The Lady Waves led 10-0 after the first 2 minutes and stretched their lead to 23-2 by the end of the first quarter. Frederick Fraize had seven turnovers in the period.

“You just go out there and do what we did: we played every kid in every quarter,” Hurt said. “We shuffled our lineups in and out, and we did a variety of lineups. You mostly play a little zone, and I think our zone in this case was designed to where they’re going to get looks. If they don’t put them in the basket, then they don’t. But you don’t want your kids get into bad habits, so that’s a tough line to walk.”

Meade County’s lead swelled to 37-6 at the half.

The Lady Waves hit 25-of-45 shots from the field, and 10-of-21 from beyond the arc. Sophomore wing Carrisa Schwartz added nine points, two rebounds, one assist and one steal, while sophomore guard Raley Johnson had eight points, one rebound and one assist.

Junior forward Maya Luney and sophomore guard Ellie DeVries each scored six points.

“I thought we did some nice things,” Hurt said. “We made some nice passes. We reversed the ball well at times. I thought we were unselfish and rebounded OK, and I thought we ran all of our stuff well against the zone. Hancock and Breck County are going to run the zone, so we were able to run through all our sets against the zone. Hopefully it was a good precursor to Thursday, which will be a much more competitive game.”

Meade County also secured one of the eight spots in next week’s 3rd Region Tournament at the Owensboro Sportscenter. The region draw is Saturday.

“It’s a great deal for us,” Hurt said. “We took care of business in the regular season. We were able to not sweat it as much as a lot of people are sweating it tonight. We felt good coming in. We want to win the championship, but it’s good to know we’ll be able to go down and get a draw and be one of the eight teams that have a chance to win the regional championship.”

Josh Claywell can be reached at (270) 505-1752 or jclaywell@thenewsenterprise.com