Kentucky Premier wins two to advance to championship game

Kentucky Premier 17U won both their games today in the FILA Summer Derby Classic at UofL to advance to the championship game Thursday afternoon. They'll play the Lady Rams out of Jacksonville, Florida at 4:10 p.m. in Cardinal Arena.

In the first game, Premier overcame an early 6-0 deficit to Cincinnati Heat to take a 19-18 halftime lead with a buzzer beating three by Sarah Hammond. Premier built the lead to 8 early in the second half, but allowed Cincy to rally and regain the lead 35-31 with 6:40 to go. Makayla Epps and Bre Elder picked up the scoring slack and both had clutch threes to lead Premier to a hard fought 48-44 win. Hammonds and Epps led the way with 13 points each and Danay Fothergill knocked down two second half threes for Kentucky. Epps sank a free throw with 10 seconds remaining to secure the final margin.

In the nightcap, Premier rallied to beat Memphis 52-51 to advance to the finals. CARDINAL COUPLE had to miss this game but it looked to be an exciting one...Kentucky Premier trailed by one with 16 seconds remaining and came back to win. We've got a message out to Kentucky coach David Tapley for details and will add it to this post if and when he responds.

************************************************************************************

CARDINAL COUPLE got to speak with Hammond directly after the Cincinnati game.

(On Cincinnati holding her to four second half points)

"Yeah, they just came out really strong on me defensively because they knew I was going to keep contributing offensively and keep heading to the rim if they didn't. I just tried to pick up my game in other areas, like defense and rebounding."

(On the victory)

" I think our rebounding at the end was what won this for us this afternoon and Coach (David Tapley) always tells us to work hard and try to play the perfect game...so we're always trying to get a little better each time. We've played some really good teams."

**********************************************************************************

36 games on tap today in the final round of action. Where has our "One Great Newspaper" here in Louisville been during the tournament? Covering matters such as where LeBron James is going to play in the NBA and that there is another Zeller playing basketball in Indiana. Jody Demling in Indy watching a boys AAU Tournament.

Not surprising, really. If the tournament had been held in Lexington, though...I expect it would have received wall to wall coverage. Way to represent the local events, guys.

*********************************************************************************

It was good to see James "Boo" Brewer yesterday taking in the action and coaching. The former Louisville standout coaches the Kentucky Premier 15U team. "Boo" still looks like he could lead the fastbreak and break someone's ankles with a crossover...

*********************************************************************************

Coaches and media get the same wrist band to gain entrance to the events. This led to a couple of interesting conversations for Paul yesterday with some of the college womens' coaching staff....including an invite to apply for a coaching job from a unnamed school. He was also asked which university he represented and told the questioner without batting an eye:

" The Lemmings of Southeastern Kentucky Polytech and Agriculture. Just call us SEKPA for short..."

Allegedly, a certain SEC coach inquired if "Paul's team" might be interested in filling a pre-conference game slot. I guess I'm going to have to teach the Yorkies the 2-3 zone and dig out my Converse again....and we're going to have to pass on a home and away since Paul took down the basketball goal on the side of the garage.