CAMPBELLSBURG — When Liza Froedge drained a 3-pointer from the left wing with time running down at the end of the first period, the Trinity Lutheran girls basketball team had the momentum coach Darrin Keith was hoping for.
Froedge’s basket gave the Cougars a 13-10 lead over Wood Memorial on Saturday afternoon in the West Washington Class A regional.
The next 2 minutes of action turned ugly for Trinity as they coughed up five turnovers and the Trojans moved on top 14-13.
Kathleen Sevier’s layup came off Trinity’s fifth turnover of the second period and started the Trojans on a 12-0 run that extended their lead to 24-13.
The Trojans would go on to win the title game 62-49.
“We had some turnovers there, gave up some offensive rebounds,” Keith said. “(Sevier) is a load down there. She’s a workhorse. She does a lot of good things. We couldn’t keep her off the glass at all.”
Sevier, a 5-foot-10 junior, topped the Trojans with 23 points and 14 rebounds.
Trinity’s Marley Warren made a basket and two free throws in the final 2:40 of the half, but Trinity still trailed 25-17 at the break. Sevier finished with four field goals and four rebounds in the second quarter.
At that point, Keith said he felt his team still had a good chance to pull this one out despite the eight-point deficit at the half.
“With the mistakes that we made and the way we were playing and the shots we weren’t making, I thought we were OK,” he said. “When we came out in the second half, there were some calls that didn’t go our way, and we got in foul trouble, and that’s basketball.”
The Trojans outscored the Cougars 7-3 in the final 1:50 of the third period to take a 40-28 lead into the fourth period.
“We didn’t give up,” Keith said. “We just kept grinding, kept fighting. Our kids are resilient, and they’ve shown that this year. There were a dozen times we could have quit, and we didn’t.”
After Warren hit a 3-pointer with 5:30 left in the fourth period to leave the Cougars trailing 42-33, the Trojans made a steady path to the free throw line and made 11 of 23 free throws during that time and 18 of 37 for the game.
“I told the girls that rebounding would be the key to winning this game, and I think it was,” Keith said.
Madison Keith, the coach’s daughter, suffered a torn PCL on the same West Washington floor on Jan. 4 and hadn’t seen any playing time until Saturday. She entered the game at the 3:22 mark of the opening quarter and scored a basket soon after she got in the game.
She ended up with nine points and five rebounds.
“My running was good,” she said. “I can definitely tell I’ve been out for a while. I was just giving it all I had. My lateral movement was good. It doesn’t cause much pain, but I can tell there is definitely some difference from before I got hurt until now.”
Keith is playing club volleyball for Union, based in Louisville. She was originally scheduled to play in a tournament in early January but had to postpone that plan.
“I’m hoping I can come back next week and start playing,” she said. “I’ve lost a lot of strength. I’ve been going to physical therapy, and I have a lot of exercises I have to do to build back that strength that I had before.”
“I was glad to see her play,” coach Keith said of his daughter. “I was kind of nervous when she hit the floor a couple of times, but she did OK.”
Warren topped Trinity with 24 points, and Froedge finished with 12.
Seniors on the Trinity roster are Froedge, Morgan Brewer and Dianna Munoz.
“Liza and Morgan and even Dianna don’t just mean basketball to us,” Keith said. “They mean more than basketball sometimes. They are my first class of seniors. I told them I’ll remember them forever.”
Trinity finished 14-12. Wood Memorial will take a record of 16-10 into Saturday’s southern semistate.
West Washington Regional
Wood Memorial 62, Trinity Lutheran 49
Trinity Lutheran;13;4;11;21;–;49
Wood Memorial;10;15;15;22;–;62
Trinity Lutheran (14-12): Liza Froedge 4 4-4 12, Jordan Brewer 0 1-2 1, Marley Warren 8 4-4 24, Laura Roeder 0 1-2 1, Bailey Bonde 1 0-0 2, Morgan Brewer 0 0-0 0, Madison Keith 2 5-6 9, Emerson Warren 0 0-0 0, Zoey Dulaney 0 0-0 0, DeAnna Rothert 0 0-0 0, Zoe Croquart 0 0-0 0, Marci Lenart 0 0-0 0, totals 15 15-18 49
Wood Memorial (16-10): Kathleen Sevier 9 5-11 23, Addyson Phillips 1 3-4 5, Jo Page 7 5-10 19, Berkleigh Collins 2 4-10 9, Kamryn Blacklock 0 1-2 1, Macy Bingham 1 0-0 2, Jillian Page 1 0-0 3, totals 19 18-37
3-point goals: Trinity (M. Warren 4, Froedge 2), Wood Memorial (Collins, Jil Page)
Rebounds: Trinity 32 (Bonde 9, M. Warren 9), Wood Memorial 37 (Sevier 14)
Turnovers: Trinity 19, Wood Memorial 12
Fouls: Trinity 28, Wood Memorial 20