Male guard Ciaja Harbison drives to the basket in the Girls’ LIT championship. 28 January 2017
After losing in the finals of the Louisville Invitational Tournament last weekend, the Male High School girls basketball team returned to practice this week seeking to move on and get better.
On Friday, the Bulldogs’ efforts paid off in a 70-56 victory over host No. 11 Mercy. The fact that Male, the No. 3 team in The Courier-Journal’s Litkenhous Ratings, won convincingly without starting center Cameron Browning made it all the more impressive.
Ciaja Harbison scored 10 of her 15 points in the second half to fuel the Bulldogs, who applied pressure defense on the Jaguars to pull away. It started at the beginning of the third quarter, when Mercy coach Keith Baisch had to call a timeout after only five seconds when his team couldn’t get the past the Male trap.
The Jaguars, who led throughout the first quarter, committed 26 turnovers, with 17 coming in the second half.
“The girls, they got energized in the second half, and that pressure really bothered Mercy,” Male coach Champ Ligon said.
It was the second straight big win for the Bulldogs (22-2) since falling to top-ranked Butler 85-57 in the LIT. It was during that tournament run when Browning started experiencing problems with plantar fasciitis, an inflammatory condition that can cause pain under the heel. Ligon said they decided to hold her out this week, starting with Tuesday’s 69-49 win over Assumption. She’ll likely sit out Monday against district foe Brown and possibly return Tuesday against Eastern.
With just two weeks left in the regular season, Male has a week off after the Eagles.
“Hopefully, it’ll give that inflammation a chance to calm down and for her to come back 100 percent,” Ligon said.
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Without Browning, Ligon got a chance to give his frontcourt reserves some playing time, and they rewarded him. Jada Owens scored 12 points and Joelle Johnson added 10 as they shot a combined 9 of 14 from the floor. Both forwards also grabbed five rebounds.
Harbison’s three-point play with 5:27 left in the first half gave Male its first lead, 23-21, and the Bulldogs never looked back. That lead eventually grew to 70-52 with 33.8 left.
The junior guard said losing in the LIT has become a source of motivation for the team.
“Play like it’s the championship game,” said Harbison, who added six rebounds, five steals and four assists. “We’re going to play the rest of the season like this.”
Josie Woods and Danielle Feldkamp both led Mercy (12-12) with 14 points each, and Feldkamp, a junior center, took advantage of Browning’s absence to grab 19 rebounds. However, Mercy’s advantage on the glass was just 38-33, with Male actually winning the rebounding battle in the second half 18-15.
After shooting nearly 59 percent (7 of 12) in the first quarter, the Jaguars made just 2 of 10 shots in the second quarter. Mercy finished shooting just 36.5 percent (19 of 52) for the game. Baisch said the pressure affected his team, but they also missed some chances as well.
“We missed a lot of shots in transition, where I think if we hit those, it’s a different ballgame,” he said.
The Jaguars also got some bad news in the first half. Elizabeth Anderson made her return from a torn meniscus in her right knee, playing for the first time since the season opener. She came off the bench, scoring six points in just over four minutes. However, the senior post player left with 3:26 left in the second quarter. She returned to the bench in the second half with an ice pack on her left knee.
MALE 70, MERCY 56
Male (22-2)
Ciaja Harbison 15p 6r 5s 4a, Joelle Johnson 10p, Emilia Sexton 12p, Alana Striverson 3p, Jada Owens 12p, India Green 2p, Kyra Hogan 8p, Logan Calvert 8p.
Mercy (12-12)
Ta’Ziah Jenks 2p, Raquael Reese 5p, Hope Sivori 7p, Sadie Ziesloft 3p, Regan Berger 5p 6a, Josie Woods 14p, Elizabeth Anderson 6, Danielle Feldkamp 14p 19r.