Louisville
Note: Herald-Leader high school sports writer Jared Peck traveled to Louisville on Saturday to see the Statewide Mortgage Valentine Shootout at Butler Traditional High School where 12 of the best girls’ basketball teams in the state competed in a morning-to-night showcase event. Here’s one of the stories to come out of the day.
Over the last decade, the Cooper girls’ basketball team has advanced out of the 33rd District Tournament one time.
Situated with four other Boone County public schools in the 33rd, the Jaguars have struggled mightily over those years, mustering just two winning seasons and watching Ryle, that other school with a Union address, rise to become a 9th Region power and state champion.
But those years of frustration could soon be at an end.
Though still a young team with a new coach, No. 13 Cooper (9-2) pulled off an impressive upset Saturday, knocking off then No. 2 Sacred Heart 53-51 at the Statewide Mortgage Valentine Shootout at Butler Traditional High School.
It was a game the Jaguars controlled from the outset, leading by nine points with under a minute left before the score tightened in the frenetic closing seconds as Sacred Heart tried to scramble back in it with a harassing full-court press.
“We’re extremely young, and we’ve been young for a while now,” said Jaguars 6-foot-2 sophomore forward Whitney Lind, who crossed the 1,000-point mark in her fledgling career with a game-high 20 points against the Valkyries. “To play through adversity like that, and to see us overcome adversity in late-game situations — something we didn’t do the past two years — it shows our growth.”
While Cooper has yet to play No. 11 Ryle, the last team to hoist a Girls’ Sweet 16 crown, the Jaguars also have notched impressive wins against other top teams in the Dave Cantrall ratings, including victories over No. 10 Dixie Heights, co-No. 11 Notre Dame and No. 23 Scott. Their only losses have come to Conner in overtime and No. 1 Anderson County — not bad for a team that starts two sophomores and three freshmen under first-year head coach Justin Holthaus.
With one more victory, which seems a certainty, the Jaguars will surpass last year’s win total, a milestone achievement for a team that won only three games the year before that.
“We’re growing and we’re working hard on the court,” said Lind. “What we saw tonight is what we see in practice every day. And so it’s great to see the payoff.”
While the short preseason, COVID-19 stoppages and random game cancellations have been tough, and adjusting to a new coach has been different, Lind said the team has shaken off those early doubts.
“We have adapted so well, and we listen to everything (Coach) says,” said Lind, who has led the team in scoring since she was in eighth grade. “I mean, sometimes you can see in the game that we’re still doing a little bit of stuff on our own, but toward the end, we executed and that’s what won us the game.”
Holthaus took over the program this season after being a longtime assistant coach for a successful Cooper boys’ program.
“I’m just so proud of them and just how we’re growing as a team,” Holtaus said Saturday. “I just got the job in October, so they’re trying to figure out me and our program and the staff and everything like that. These girls have been awesome.”
In addition to Lind, Cooper gets double-figures scoring from freshman Logan Luebbers Palmer (11.3 ppg) and sophomore Kay Freihofer (10.1). Freshman Liz Freihofer nears that with 8.5 points per game and is the team’s second-leading rebounder behind Lind.
“We’ve just got a great group of young girls that are starting to believe in a victory like this against Sacred Heart,” Holthaus said. “That’s another stepping stone for our program.
Holthaus made sure to obtain the game ball Saturday for Holthaus for her 1,000th-point achievement.
“I told her, (I’ll get) ‘however many balls — I hope you get up to 3,000 and get three of them,’” he said. “This is her third year of varsity and every year she’s getting a little better. What she does in the offseason just on her own is a testament to how much she wants it. The success that she has is because she puts in the time and the effort.”
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