Jim Mashek

LADY WILDCATS’ FRONT-LINE DUO DOMINATES AGAINST LADY HORNETS

Heidi Coleman and her Metcalfe County girls basketball team was trying to make school history.

Likewise, at Franklin-Simpson, where the tradition-rich Lady Wildcats were looking to get back to the KHSAA Sweet 16 for the first time since 2009.

Something had to give on Saturday night at WKU’s historic E.A. Diddle Arena, when Franklin-Simpson tangled with the Lady Hornets in a KHSAA 4th Region championship game decided by a second-quarter flurry that took all the suspense out of the second half.

Franklin-Simpson’s dynamic duo in the paint, 6-foot senior forward LaReesha Cawthorn and 5-foot-11 junior forward Kloie Smith, took control in a 21-point second quarter, driving the Lady Wildcats to an impressive 72-43 victory before a packed house at Diddle.

(It was considerably larger turnout than the paid attendance crowd of 4,247 for the Hilltoppers’ regular-season finale against Liberty University, only hours earlier. WKU laid a gargantuan egg on Senior Day as the Flames of Lynchburg, Virginia, hit one 3-point field goal after another, collecting 16 on the afternoon in a 90-61 drubbing of the reeling Tops.)

Franklin-Simpson coach Ashley Taylor will be the first one to tell you that 3-point shooting isn’t the Lady Wildcats’ strong suit, and on some nights, it can be their weakest link. But that wasn’t the case against Metcalfe County, and Cawthorn and Smith made sure the Lady Wildcats would be packing their bags for Lexington in due time.

Cawthorn drew plenty of double- and even triple-teams in the game’s formative moments, but by the second quarter it became clear that wasn’t going to work for the Lady Hornets.

Not with Kloie Smith operating on the high post when Cawthorn on the block, and vice-versa. The Lady Wildcats had 30 field goals on the night, while improving to 28-2 on the season, and 25 of those 30 baskets were the result of assists.

That’s teamwork.

(Not only that, but the Lady Wildcats had just THREE turnovers in the entire game against Metcalfe.)

That’s why Franklin-Simpson will be squaring off with George Rogers Clark High School (25-7) first-round play of the KHSAA Sweet 16 on Wednesday. That game will tip off at 6 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, with the winner to face either Lexington’s Frederick Douglass High School (25-7) or Simon Kenton High School (26-4) on Friday night.

It was a night to remember for sixth-year Franklin-Simpson coach Ashley Taylor, her program and the school’s entire athletic community.

“When we make shots from the outside,” Taylor said, “we’re hard to beat.”

Metcalfe County (27-6) learned that the hard way on Saturday night, but they’ll lose just one player, senior guard Kassady London, from this year’s talented squad.

Franklin-Simpson’s Naija Nolan hit three 3-point field goals, and teammate Jasmine Savage added another, as the Lady Wildcats put the issue to rest in the opening moments of the second half. Metcalfe County made a move in the first half, but Franklin-Simpson answered with an 11-0 run that extended the Lady Wildcats’ lead to 31-15.

With Kloie Smith and LaReesha Cawthorn operating inside — Franklin-Simpson collected a staggering 46 points in the paint — the Lady Wildcats were cooking with gas.

“We moved the ball really well,” Smith said. “Defensively, we knew we had to get into them. Be physical. We have guards who are really quick. If you double down on ‘Reesha (Cawthorn), we’ve got other players who can score. We’re really grateful, to the coaches, to the community, for their support.”

Metcalfe County, which knocked off five-time defending 4th Region champion Bowling Green High School, 40-30, in semifinal play, had three days to put together a game plan for Franklin-Simpson. Sophomore forward Jozie Allen was playing on a torn ACL, and she had to leave Saturday’s game in the third quarter, writhing in pain but staying on the bench for the remainder of the contest.

Metcalfe County coach Heidi Coleman said the moment might have gotten the best of her team.

“The stage was bigger than any of these kids had seen before,” Coleman said. “We knew we’d have to play well … We didn’t have it tonight. Give all the credit to Franklin-Simpson.”

Franklin-Simpson’s Kloie Smith hit 10 of 14 shots and led the Lady Wildcats with a game-high 21 points and 11 rebounds. She also had five assists and a team-high four steals. Cawthorn, the Tennessee Tech signee who began her high school career at Russellville, turned in a magnificent performance, too, hitting eight of 11 shots while adding three free throws for 19 points, along with seven rebounds, five assists and four steals.

“They play so well off each other,” Franklin-Simpson coach Ashley Taylor said. “We’ve put this team through a gauntlet of a schedule … We really tried to ‘block out’ last year, once the season started.”

Franklin-Simpson was a strong favorite to cut down the nets on its way to Rupp in 2024, but Taylor’s squad ran into a Bowling Green High School squad that wouldn’t be denied in a 52-39 victory over the Lady Wildcats.

That memory gave the Lady Wildcats incentive, but then they had to make it happen between the lines. Franklin-Simpson went a perfect 19-0 against 4th Region competition this season, with Cawthorn averaging a team-high 21 points and 11 rebounds per game.

She put up those sorts of numbers in a championship environment on Saturday night.

“We just had to lock in on defense in this game,” Cawthorn said. “We got a lot of stops early, and our coaches prepared us for games like this … Nothing was going to stop us from winning this game.”

Senior guard Kassady London led Metcalfe County with nine points, while teammates Bree Jolly and LeeElla Boles each finished with eight. Metcalfe coach Heidi Coleman was working with a short bench, and that was compounded when Jozie Allen left the court with her torn ACL in the third quarter.

Franklin-Simpson players, coaches and fans crowded the E.A. Diddle Arena floor as the Lady Wildcats celebrated their breakthrough season to the Sweet 16.

“I’m so happy for our girls, our coaches, our community, our school – man, we put a lot of work into this,” Taylor said. “This has been building for a couple of years now, working towards this goal … Man, it’s an amazing feeling.”