A 23-point loss to Elizabethtown just before Christmas and a somewhat surprising loss to Mercy just two weeks ago had some doubting the Butler High School girls basketball team’s standing among the elite teams In Kentucky.
There’s no doubt now.
Displaying a new attitude on defense and getting significant contributions from starters and bench players alike, the Bearettes completed an impressive run through the Republic Bank/Coca-Cola Consolidated Louisville Invitational Tournament with a 68-54 victory over Male in Saturday’s championship game at Christian Academy.
Butler (17-4) – No. 2 in the state in The Courier-Journal’s Litkenhous Ratings – won its four LIT games by an average margin of 24.3 points and firmly established itself among the state’s top teams entering the final three weeks of the regular season.
“After we lost to Mercy we felt like nobody was paying attention to us anymore,” junior guard Jaelynn Penn said. “We had to prove to people that, yeah, we’re one of the best in the state.”
Penn scored 17 points and received the Joyce Seymour Award as the top offensive player in the tournament. Allison Just (15 points, nine rebounds) and Janna Lewis (14 points, 11 rebounds, three assists) also had big games as Butler captured its fifth LIT title, tied with Manual for second-most all-time behind Sacred Heart (seven).
Emilia Sexton led No. 4 Male with 21 points. Ciaja Harbison added 14 points, and I’Liyah Green pitched in 12 points and 13 rebounds and took the Bunny Daugherty Award as the LIT’s top defender.
Male (17-2) had won 17 straight games since a 73-65 loss to Butler in both teams’ season opener on Dec. 1.
“I think I could have done a better job coaching, and I think my players could have done a better job playing,” Bulldogs coach Champ Ligon Jr. said. “We just have to get better.”
Butler won behind an opportunistic defense that scored 32 points off 20 Male turnovers and a 41-34 rebounding advantage that led to 17 second-chance points.
Butler led 36-28 at halftime after a physical half that included 25 fouls. The Bearettes had 20 offensive rebounds in the first half, including seven by Lewis.
“Butler just wanted it more, and it shows in the loose balls and on the rebounds and on the fouls,” Ligon said. “They were the more aggressive team, so we were the team that made more fouls. They did whatever it took to go get the basketball for the majority of the game. That’s why they came out on top.”
Green’s basket pulled Male within 42-37 with 4:55 left in the third quarter, but Butler dominated from there.
The Bearettes put together a 17-3 run, started by a Bre Torrens 3-pointer at the 1:49 mark of the third quarter and capped by a Tasia Jeffries basket that made it 59-40 with 4:17 remaining in the fourth.
Butler coach Larry Just said fatigue hampered both teams in the second half but that his team handled it better.
“It was kind of like, mentally, who’s the last person standing?” he said. “We were able to make a few plays and kind of broke them on a few layups and probably demoralized them a little bit. And we got some stops and steals on defense.”
It was the second LIT title for Just, whose 2013-14 squad parlayed the title into a state championship. The coach said he believes the team has found a renewed focus on defense he is hoping will carry it through another deep run in the postseason.
“We had gotten into a passive defensive mode, and that’s not who we are,” he said. “We have to come out and get moving, and we started doing that again. I think that’s what our kids respond to.”
Jason Frakes can be reached at (502) 582-4046 and jfrakes@courier-journal.com.
MALE 17 11 11 15 – 54
BUTLER 16 20 12 20 – 68
Male (17-2) – Harbison 14, Kraft 4, Sexton 21, Hogan 2, Green 12, Calvert 1.
Butler (16-5) – Torrens 5, Jeffries 4, Bowden 6, Penn 17, Goodlett 5, Lockhart 2, Lewis 14, Just 15.
3-point goals – Sexton 5; Torrens, Bowden, Penn, Just 3.
Joyce Seymour Offense Award – Jaelynn Penn (Butler).
Bunny Daugherty Defense Award – I’Liyah Green (Male).
All-tournament team – Tasia Jeffries, Jaelynn Penn, Micaiah Bowden (Butler); I’Liyah Green, Emilia Sexton, Logan Calvert (Male); Jessica Laemmle, Josie Woods (Mercy); Seygan Robins (Mercer County); Jaela Johnson (Manual).