When the girls’ Sweet 16 gets going for the first time ever at Rupp Arena on Wednesday, plenty of local coaching ties will be leading their teams in trying to earn a state title.

Former Mason County coach Piper Lindsey will be bringing her alma matter Barren County back to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2007, she’ll be facing off against former Fleming County coach Kristy Orem at Pikeville, leading the Lady Panthers to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1980.

Fleming County graduate and former Panthers assistant coach Robbie Graham will be leading George Rogers Clark to their third straight Sweet 16 appearance while former Mason County Lady Royals coach Stephen Butcher will be leading Southwestern to their first ever Sweet 16 appearance.

LINDSEY LEADS ALMA MATTER BACK TO SWEET 16

Piper Lindsey helped lead the Lady Royals to the Final Four in 2015, an improbable run for a young team at the time, surprising the region and winning two games down at the Sweet 16 by her backyard in Bowling Green at Western Kentucky University’s Diddle Arena. In four seasons with Mason County, Lindsey compiled a 75-53 record.

After leaving Mason County, Lindsey is now in her fourth season with Barren County, getting the Trojanettes back to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2007. Lindsey helped lead Barren County to the Sweet 16 in 2004 as a player.

Lindsey has helped revamped the program since taking over in the 2015-16 season. In the prior three seasons before Lindsey took over, Barren County went 20-55 and failed to make it out of the first round of the district tournament. Since then, the Trojanettes have gone 88-40 under Lindsey with two district titles and the regional title this season.

“A lot of it is trusting the process and the girls buying in,” Lindsey said. “Being here before helped me out and the trust factor of it. Our motto is to ‘trust the process.’ Through these years, the girls have trusted me and the coaching staff to get back to where we want to be. Barren County basketball used to be really good and the kids have really bought in to the expectations.”

Lindsey said the four-year process of getting to Lexington was helped by having four seniors with her since day one when she took over when they were freshman. The four include leading scorers Bailey Pedigo and Elizabeth Bertram, along with Mallory Pedigo and McKenzie England. England hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer against Allen County-Scottsville in the first round of the 15th District Tournament or else the Trojanettes wouldn’t even be where they’re at now.

“Needed that game, we led the majority of it and let it slip away,” Lindsey said. “They were a good team that beat us earlier in the season, we luckily got a little luck.”

This trip to the Sweet 16 feels a little more special for Lindsey, taking her alma matter to the big show.

“It does. A lot more special when you consider the family aspect of it and the support makes it mean more. Its been 12 years since we’ve been here, 2007 when my sister played and then I got to go in 2004,” Lindsey said.

They’ll face off against Pikeville on Thursday at 12 p.m., a coach Lindsey is familiar with, having faced Pikeville coach Kristy Orem four times when she was at Fleming County, the Lady Royals and Lady Panthers splitting the four matchups.

“I feel like we’re spitting images of each other. They like to get up and down, so do we. We’ve got a couple lefties, so do they. It should be a really good matchup,” Lindsey said.

OREM BREAKS THROUGH DOOR OF SWEET 16

Unlike Lindsey, Pikeville coach Kristy Orem had been knocking on the door of the Sweet 16 and was finally able to bust through this year. Orem led Fleming County to the regional title game in 2015 and Pikeville last season, coming up short. In 16 seasons with Fleming County, Orem compiled a 275-205 record.

In Orem’s first two seasons at Pikeville, the Lady Panthers had been eliminated by Johnson Central the regional tournament, the first one in overtime in the first round, last season by five in the regional championship and were able to exact revenge this season.

“It’s been unreal, I’m in awe,” Orem said. “We struggled in December, lost five games. As the year went on we started gelling. We were ranked preseason No. 1 in the region and a lot of teams came after us. The losses helped because it got our girls more focused and working harder. We gained a lot of confidence in the district tourney and gave the girls the thought we might do this. We had a tough regional draw, had to beat the top teams to get here…Pike Central, Floyd Central, Johnson Central. The girls have really figured out what we’ve been talking about, team success. Our motto is ‘One team, one dream.’

Pikeville is making their first trip to the Sweet 16 since 1980. Much like the staple of her Fleming County teams, defense is what got the Lady Panthers here.

“We played a different defense in every game of the regional tournament. The girls really bought into the defensive side and how I wanted it to be done,” Orem said. “We got a lot of stops, rebounded the basketball and really stepped our game up on that side of the ball.”

Before Orem arrived, getting out of the first round of the district tournament was a chore, failing to do so in eight out of 12 seasons prior to her arrival. Since then, Pikeville has gone 71-23 and made the regional tournament all three seasons. “When I first came, it was about the future. We only had two seniors. We’re trying to build a program and getting girls to understand much like when I was at Fleming County at how hard you have to play. At practice, we come to work,” Orem said. “The main thing was learning how to play defense like I want to play. A lot of kids don’t want to do that. I was blessed my first year having two seniors that bought into that.”

Now Pikeville only has two seniors on the roster again in Grace Bartley and Leslie Stewart. Bartley is headed to Georgetown College and Orem compares her to a Fleming County player who took the same path after playing in high school, Martina Lytle. Stewart is headed to Transylvania.

The Lady Panthers also feature 15th Region Player of the Year in Kirsten Cole-Williamson. Much like the Mason County-Fleming County battles with Coach Lindsey, Orem expects a similar tightly-contested battle on Thursday at noon.

“It’s funny how similar we are. It’s crazy, they have lefties, two good bigs inside. We’re so similar. So much alike,” Orem said. “They’re very well coached, her teams are always very well coached. They run good sets and play solid defense. That’s a credit to her, they are very defensive minded.”

GRAHAM NO STRANGER TO SWEET 16

No stranger to the Sweet 16 is Robbie Graham and the George Rogers Clark Lady Cardinals. GRC is making their third straight trip to the Sweet 16 and fourth in seven years with Graham as head coach. In seven seasons with the program, Graham has led the Lady Cardinals to a 161-71 record, including five twenty-win seasons.

Much like his playing days at Fleming County when he was terrorizing the 10th Region, his team has bought into his work ethic.

“We work hard. We want to be successful and be a great program,” Graham said. “One of things I talk in preseason with the parent meeting is that we’re going to work them hard. In our pursuit of greatness, we’ve had great kids with high character and that makes you definitely want to be the coach.”

One thing GRC won’t be seeing is Mercer County, the team that’s eliminated them the past two seasons in the quarterfinals and semifinals before going on to win back-to-back state championships. While the Titans are not in the mix for a three-peat, the Lady Cardinals will have some tough games to get to Sunday’s championship game. Their tourney run starts off with Mercy, last year’s state finalist.

“They are very well coached with a deceiving record. I’ve talked to our girls to not look at that. They’ve beat a lot of good teams and played in the title game last year, They are led by their top two players (Taziah Jenks and Hope Sivori), who are really good players and have bright futures ahead of them. We’ll definitely have to slow them down because they are capable of putting up points in bunches,” Graham said.

If the Lady Cardinals can get by Mercy, a quarterfinal contest with slight tourney favorite Ryle is then most likely, if the Lady Raiders get by Murray. Ryle has been a top five team in the state all year and feature two Division I players in Lauren Schwartz and Maddie Scherr. Not that the Lady Cardinals lack Division I athletes themselves with three of them, Kennedy Igo (NKU commit), Hayley Harrison (UT-Martin signee) and Maleaha Bell (EKU signee). All three have dealt with injuries throughout the season and the eight days off in-between the 10th Region championship and the first round game in the state tourney should help. But, during practice another ankle injury came about with starter Jasmine Flowers. Between Igo, Harrison and Flowers, the Lady Cardinals haven’t had much like with ankles.

“I told our AD we’re going to sue our ankle brace company,” Graham joked. “But it was good to take a couple days off after the regional championship and then we got back at it hard and have stayed sharp.”

The injuries came with losses as GRC enters at 24-10, having played one of the toughest schedules in the state and hitting their groove in the 10th Region tournament.

The experience of being here the last two years should also help.

“Being here is key. We know what to expect, we’re used to playing games in back-to-back days and having short amount of time to prepare. We know we need to execute, rebound and value the basketball,” Graham said.

George Rogers Clark faces Mercy, Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

BUTCHER BRINGS SOUTHWESTERN TO FIRST SWEET 16

Southwestern coach Stephen Butcher coached the Mason County Lady Royals from 2008-11, compiling a 35-49 record in three seasons. After helping out with the Mason County boys’ middle school program while Chris O’Hearn was the head coach for a year and an assistant on Happy Osborne’s staff at Montgomery County the next year, Butcher took the job at Southwestern in 2013 and hasn’t looked back since, sporting a record of 139-39 since leading the Warriors team.

“We’ve always had talent here. I walked in and had an all-time leading scorer. We’ve just tried to instill a culture and a philosophy and took to it day one,” Butcher said.

Mercer County was their biggest roadblock to the Sweet 16, having knocked Southwestern off in four of the six seasons.

“Mercer had a really special group. We just ran into a buzzsaw for years. In 2016 we had a shot in the regional semis, they just made a play at the end with a girl who is currently playing at Louisville (Seygan Robins). It took us a while to get over that. The seniors and juniors now were a part of that,” Butcher said.

When they did get over it, the Sweet 16 trip this year, their first ever, has earned them keys to the city of Burnside and a proclomation of the town, treated like royalty.

The Warriors were able to fight off a competitive 12th Region field this season that featured Lincoln County, Danville and Casey County, all picked above them in the region when the season started. Shooting 92 percent from the free throw line in the 12th Region tournament helped.

“We’ve really come together through time and defended really well which has given us better chances on the offensive end,” Butcher said.

Now they head to Rupp not only looking for their first Sweet 16 win in program history, but a favorable draw that could land them into the semifinals on Saturday.

“We just need to continue to defend like we have. We’ve done a really good job eliminating the opponent’s No. 1 option. We want to make the other team’s secondary players take tough shots. We do that, we have a shot,” Butcher said.

Southwestern opens up with Collins on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

Here’s a list of the complete first round matchups:

Wednesday

Knott County Central (25-7) vs Scott County (33-1), 12 p.m.

Owensboro Catholic (27-7) vs Bethlehem (29-4), 1:30 p.m.

George Rogers Clark (24-10) vs Mercy (16-14), 6:30 p.m.

Ryle (29-5) vs Murray (28-3), 8 p.m.

Thursday

Pikeville (27-7) vs Barren County (31-4), 12 p.m.

Male (22-7) vs Boyd County (28-4), 1:30 p.m.

Collins (23-12) vs Southwestern (24-5), 6:30 p.m.

North Laurel (30-6) vs Henderson County (18-8), 8 p.m.

Stephen Butcher
https://maysville-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_butcher.jpgStephen Butcher

Robbie Graham
https://maysville-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_Graham.jpgRobbie Graham

Kristy Orem
https://maysville-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_Orem.jpgKristy Orem

Piper Lindsey
https://maysville-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_piper.jpgPiper Lindsey

https://maysville-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_basketballprogram201911.jpg
A lot of local coaching ties to the Sweet 16

Evan Dennison

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