Jim Mashek

LADY CATS WILL OPEN KHSAA SWEET 16 PLAY AGAINST BULLITT EAST ON THURSDAY AT RUPP ARENA

Franklin-Simpson guard Tiffany Harrigan cut to the chase much like she cut to the basket on Saturday night in the KHSAA 4th Region girls basketball championship game at WKU’s historic E.A. Diddle Arena.

Barreling forward.

“Nobody wants to go home,” Harrigan said after the Lady Cats survived an epic overtime battle with perennial contender Barren County High School, claiming a 60-56 victory that sends Franklin-Simpson back to the KHSAA Sweet 16 starting Wednesday at UK’s Rupp Arena in Lexington. “We knew it was going to be a tough game …”

That might be an understatement.

Scratch and claw, ebb and flow, basket for basket.

This championship contest definitely had a prizefighter’s feel to it.

Barren County took a 19-game winning streak into Saturday’s title tilt, and the Trojanettes have looked like every bit the 4th Region favorite for weeks. Franklin-Simpson and Barren County had split in their two previous matchups, with the Lady Cats taking a holiday tournament game at South Warren High School on December 29, before the Trojanettes traveled to Franklin to knock off F-S coach Ashley Taylor’s squad, 75-49, after the two-week hiatus created by Winter Storm Fern in February.

Nothing came easily, for either team, in Saturday night’s showdown at Diddle.

Allye Pennington, a powerfully built 5-foot-6 junior at Franklin-Simpson, scored 18 of her game-high 31 points in the fourth quarter and overtime, sending the Lady Wildcats back to Rupp Arena. She hit 4 of 9 shots from 3-point range — some as far as 30 feet from the basket, usually on the wing — while putting together a championship performance, finishing with 31 points and five rebounds as the Lady Cats set their sights for Lexington.

“Allye has the green light (for deep 3-point shots). She knows what it takes,” Taylor said admist the jubliation on the E.A. Diddle Arena floor, not far from where Barren County was packing its gear for what figures to be a long offseason.

The Trojanettes, a perennial 4th Region contender, were looking for their first Sweet 16 berth since 2019. They close their season with a 31-3 record, and the admiration of their veteran coach, Piper Lindsey.

“Early on, I thought we were able to hit some big shots,” Lindsey said in the hallway outside the Barren County locker room. “We were really good, defensively, for the most part. At the end, it just didn’t go our way … I’m proud of the girls, and the fight they showed tonight. I can’t say enough about our four seniors.

“The three-headed monster beat us tonight.”

Allye Pennington, senior guard Tiffany Harrigan and senior guard Mylah Rigsbee accounted for 56 of Franklin-Simpson’s 60 points. But Pennington, who transferred to Franklin-Simpson from nearby East Robertson High School, in Tennessee, said the Lady Cats were particularly happy for senior F-S center Kloie Smith, a veteran from last year’s Sweet 16 team and a dual-sport standout in basketball and softball.

“I think I wanted it for Kloie, as much as anybody,” Pennington said.

The matchup of the night was between Harrigan, who said she had been home schooled before joining the Lady Wildcats at mid-season, and Barren County star Shelby Boyd, who has already eclipsed the 1,000-point career mark in her junior season. Boyd and Harrigan guarded one another, tooth and nail, all night, and Boyd never left the court for the Trojanettes.

Harrigan? She took a five-second break at some point in the fourth quarter. She logged 35 minutes, 55 seconds in an overtime game.

Pennington has an unusual shooting motion, and she won’t hesitate to put up an open shot from beyond the 3-point line. But she’s equally effective driving to the basket, either drawing a foul or using the glass to get the ball through the hoop.

Pennington also helped get the ball in the hands of Franklin-Simpson teammate Mylah Riggsbee, who hit all three of her shots, including two from 3-point range, while finishing with eight points and five rebounds. Kloie Smith, one of the handful of holdovers from last year’s 28-3 squad, had a team-high eight rebounds while adding four points.

“It means so much, to all of us,” Smith said when it was over. “Every Kentucky kid wants the chance to play at Rupp Arena … They asked me about my three fouls, and then my fourth, and I told them, I’m fine …”

Smith was hit with those foul calls early in the second half, within mere moments between one another, but she managed to stay on the floor for the duration. She battled Barren County’s Ann Ashley Atkinson, inside, and Atkinson, a 5-foot-11 senior guard/forward, turned in a splendid performance.

Atkinson finished the game with a team-high 17 points, hitting six of 13 shots from the field, while adding a game-high 13 rebounds and two steals. All-4th Region guard/forward Shelby Byrd played all 36 minutes for the Trojanettes, tallying 16 points on 7-for-15 shooting, along with six rebounds. Backup forward Hannah Bragg also turned in a gritty performance, finishing the game with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

“A game like this, it had to go to overtime,” Franklin-Simpson coach Ashley Taylor said. “Both teams competed. Both teams competed, so hard. Every possession mattered. We got that 10-point lead, in the third quarter, but you knew Barren wouldn’t go away quietly. They’re way too good for anything like that.

“The pressure really wasn’t on us, for the first time, here, for awhile. We knew Barren County was the favorite. They’d earned it. We had to play free …”

That’s what it took, for the Lady Cats to get back on the bus for Lexington.

Franklin-Simpson (24-7 overall) will square off with Bullitt East High School (19-12) in first-round play of the KHSAA Sweet 16 on Thursday morning, with a tip-off at 10 a.m. CDT. Bullitt East (19-12) has won seven straight games, including its 57-55 victory over Pleasure Ridge Park in the KHSAA 6th Region championship game at Louisville’s Atherton High School.

Both Franklin-Simpson and Barren County had solid shooting percentages, with the Lady Cats hitting 40 percent of their shots, including a 40 percent (6-for-15) showing from 3-point range. The Trojanettes shot 41 percent from the field, but both teams had their share of struggles at the free-throw line.

The most telling stat, however, was the two teams combined for just NINE TURNOVERS. In 36 minutes of championship basketball.

“It’s a blessing, it really is,” Franklin-Simpson guard Tiffany Harrigan said. “Everyone on this team knows our role … We like being the underdog. We had nothing to lose …

“Just play hard.”

The Lady Cats will get another chance to do just that, Thursday morning in Lexington.