All "A" 3rd Region Finals | Prep Girls Hoops

This is the first in a series of articles covering the Regionals of the All "A" Classic. This game was completed nearly a week ago, but my schedule and health have put me further behind than I would like. I have been able to find the time to attend four of the All "A" Reginal tournaments so far and plan to be at as many as possible before the field is set. To that end, I was at Cloverport High School to see the matchup between runner-up Edmonson County Lady Cats and the now 3rd Region Champion, Hancock County Lady Hornets.   If you are a Coach looking for talent to round out your college roster this series will be your preview guide to much of the talent that will be on hand at the All "A" Classic. The tournament will once again get held on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond and begins on January 25th with eight 1st Round games and wraps up the next Sunday. Last season's games were thrilling and the talent on display was amazing. I was there to cover every game (except the Final, unfortunately). Many of the finishes were exciting. The match-ups were well worth the price of admission and the heart displayed game after game was inspiring. You should expect nothing less with what should be an overall stronger field this year with many teams returning stronger than the year before.   If you are a Lady Cats fan checking in to read what I have to say about your players only scroll down to the middle of the page. Because they won I am giving the Lady Hornets the top of the bill. Edmonson County played a great game and gave it all it had. I was very impressed by the talent on both teams and wish each the best going forward.       [player_tooltip player_id='290221' first='Bailey' last='Poole'] - PG - Hancock County - 2023   Poole carried her team all game long making big shot after big shot. Every time the game started to get away from the Lady Hornets she responded with a big three-pointer to keep her team in the game. For the evening she totaled 16 points on 4 of 9 three-point shooting and made 4 of 4 free throws down the stretch to seal away the victory. But more than anything her steady ballhandling to run the offense kept her team in the game.   She hit a big three near the end of the 3rd quarter to take the lead. A few minutes later in the 4th Quarter with the slimmest of leads, Coach Kevin Husk turned the game over to his Point Guard, Poole to attempt a stall. The tactic worked to draw Edmonson County out of its Zone. Poole distributed the ball to her teammates who came through with scores of their own and free throws to seal the win and their trip to EKU.   Poole also made a very valuable contribution in their previous win to reach the finals with 14 points on 4 of 10 shooting from three-point range against last season's All "A" Classic Finalist, Owensboro Catholic.     Ella House - CG - Hancock County - 2024   House appears to like contact and her stats on the season attest to it as such. On the season she has made 69.7% of her free throws making 83 of them and shooting 119 in a period of 14 games. She is averaging a bit more than 8.5 free throw attempts per game and making almost 6 an outing. She shot 4 for 4 down the stretch in the Finals and made an outstanding 13/15 in the Semifinals 2 days prior. She likes contact but you won't like that if your team is fouling her.   But House does more than kill you at the Free Throw line, she takes the ball to the hole for easy buckets, finishes around the rim in numerous ways, blocks shots, distributes the ball to teammates in places where they can score the ball and leads the team with almost 8 rebounds per game. She made 2 crucial assists during her team's run in the 4th quarter and added 8 points in the contest. She was also huge in the previous round totaling 19 points and 5 rebounds.     Lily Roberts - SF - Hancock County - 2024   Roberts is firmly entrenched among the "Big 3" for the Lady Hornets. On the season she is contributing an average of 11.8 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. She was key defensively in the victory and by putting up 7 points and grabbing 7 rebounds in the game. Look for her to be a key contributor in their appearance in Richmond.     Emma Morris - G - Hancock County - 2023   Morris is also an important defender for the Lady Hornets and averaging totals of 5.2 points and 3.3 rebounds a game. She stepped up big in the semifinals tallying a double-double of 10 points, and 10 rebounds. That performance was key in keeping her team alive to advance in the tournament.     Cariann Willams - C - Edmonson County - 2026   Williams is having a stellar Freshman season averaging nearly a double-double of 11 points and 9.1 rebounds and nearly hit her average in the Championship game with 10 points and 9 rebounds. She is a very good rebounder, shot blocker, and rim protector, especially on the backside of the team's 3-2 Zone. She is shooting an excellent 56.6% from the floor and making 61.5% of her Free Throws. Williams is tall and long with a raw developing game. She has a solid elbow jumper and has several of the basics of post-up play under her belt. I can only hope for the sake of the game she is getting some extra instruction outside of the season by playing for a club or aau team in addition to her school team. She has the potential to play College Basketball if she will continue to put in the work. So long as I don't slip up, she will be entering our Rankings at our next update in the Freshman class, but I cannot say how high or how low she might find herself on that list. My current knowledge of the Freshman class is severely lacking due to my heavy focus last season on upperclassmen. I have some serious catching up to do on the younger players. I'll get there, but as it stands don't have much to say about who is deserving of the higher or lower rankings because I haven't seen enough of them to have an opinion of who is best. I just know talent when I see it.     Annie Kiper - PG - Edmonson County - 2023   Kiper is an excellent Point Guard who runs the show well on the offensive end of the court and works hard as the point of the spear in their Zone on defense. The biggest surprise to me about her game is that she actually took her opponent into the lane and posted up during one trip. She did not receive the ball and I would have liked to have seen what she would do with it. It made me reconsider the meaning of the phrase "mouse in the house" in basketball jargon. She did a great job of picking her spots to penetrate to make something happen when she had the ball and could possibly find a few more opportunities for herself to score. I get the feeling she is one of those players that really value getting the ball to her teammates more than they want to score their own points. She made a great assist to a teammate for a layup on a backdoor cut that I recorded in my notes. It is a shame there are no readily available stats for assists through the KHSAA website like there are for other stat categories. I would like to give her credit for a statline that is befitting of a Point Guard but cannot.     Lily Jane Vincent - PF - Edmonson County - 2023   Vincent make a very quick putisde turn post-up move to score late in the game and played solid defense on the back of the zone all game. She was important on the glass in limiting her opponents' second chances by grabbing 6 rebounds and scoring 4 points in the game. Her season average is 4.8 points and 5.2 rebounds. She has a strong build that makes her an asset inside the paint and a steady presence for the team.

This is the first in a series of articles covering the Regionals of the All "A" Classic. This game was completed nearly a week ago, but my schedule and health have put me further behind than I would like. I have been able to find the time to attend four of the All "A" Reginal tournaments so far and plan to be at as many as possible before the field is set. To that end, I was at Cloverport High School to see the matchup between runner-up Edmonson County Lady Cats and the now 3rd Region Champion, Hancock County Lady Hornets.