All "A" 8th Region Champs - Owen County Lady Rebels

Sorry this is LATE BUT I just found out I can offer a 30% Discount to New Subscribers that use my CODE - Mercer30 So use it is you want. Let me know if it works and how it works. is it case-sensitive etc? Returning to the All "A" Classic from the 8th Region are the Owen County Lady Rebels, the Defending Champs of 2022. The team has retooled and shifted its personnel around a little to reflect the talent that was lost and the talent that has been gained and developed in the off-season. They stand poised to give it another go in what could be their last All "A" Classic for several years and perhaps ever. The school size has grown enough, and some other schools around the state have lost enough students that Owen County will not qualify for Class A status in subsequent years. The good news is there is now a 2A Championship to play for but, at least for now, their days of competing in Class A are coming to a close.     Haley Logan - 6'0" - SF - Owen County - 2024   Logan is one of the most improved players I have seen over the course of the last off-season. As a player that was more of a useful role player last season, she has become a scoring machine that seems to get into the paint off the dribble at will and then finish. She is also scoring points by the bucket load due to runouts that get her behind the defense where her teammates can airmail her the ball for layups. And, of course, she is still money from the Free Throw Line (as some will remember a key Free Throw in last season's All "A" to win the Semifinals game and advance to the Championship game).   I did not measure or even ask it but appears that Logan has grown physically in the off-season as well. She was listed as 5'10" last season and I believe that was accurate, but she is clearly taller now, perhaps taller than the 6'0" I am listing her as in this article. I will try to find out. But this kind of growth, physically and in skill and in her drive to make something happen on the court leaves me feeling a bit foolish that I did not make sure she was placed into our Rankings last season. Something I will certainly have to remedy in our next update near the end of the season. Logan was unstoppable in the Final scoring 22 points while making 80% of her shots (8/10), 75% at the free throw line (6/8), and pulling down 6 rebounds. She outdid herself with her impressive season totals tallying 15.8 points and 3.4 rebounds per game and white she is averaging highly respectable shooting percentages, 58.5% Field Golas, 37.5% Three-pointers, and 60.2% Free Throws. I have heard a rumor she may not want to play in College, but I hope that is not true. She could certainly find a home on the next level if she wanted it bad enough.     [player_tooltip player_id='260270' first='Gracie' last='Ferguson'] - 5'11" - PF - Owen County - 2023   Ferguson's new role on the team is very much like her old role on the team, just with a few extra responsibilities that she is excelling at performing along with her main jobs from last season. She continues to be a Post Scoring threat and a Rebounder and Post Defender with elite ability in all of those areas. But she is now also a Shooter, Distributor, and Facilitator on the offensive end of the court. She has inherited a little of the leadership mantle as well and has a team of several other players ready to follow for the good of the team. She made an excellent pass in the paint during the first have on a counter play for an assist on a layup. She drove the ball 3/4 the length of the court through traffic for a layup that she made look easy. Rebounded a free throw that a teammate missed and on the same trip drove from the short corner for a layup. She set up another teammate for a layup on a drive from the wing, used a spin move to shed a defender then dished off the ball. She is starting to look more and more like a budding Small Forward and less like a Center every day. Her skill set is on display so much more than in the past and her strength and conditioning both continue to improve. She also looks taller, but I cannot confirm that.   She made 50% of her shots in the final to score 17 points and collected 7 rebounds. On the season she has been totaling an average of 14.8 points, and 6 rebounds while making 53.7% of her shots and 63,5% of her foul shots.     [player_tooltip player_id='380114' first='Zoey' last='Webster'] - 5'1" - PG - Owen County - 2025   Webster has transferred in and has been a crucial addition for the team that lost two solid High School Point Guards and a do-everything star, including running the Point at times, in the now-graduated Lexie Moore. her steady ball handling and tempo control at any speed is the exact piece this team needed to make a run this year. The rest of the pieces were in place and just needed some of the younger players to step up into larger roles. But at the Point position, without the plug and play here it could have been a long season and it could have pulled important pieces out of their established roles on the team.   Webster does such an excellent job of running the show that she can go unnoticed at times if you are trying to take in the game as a whole. Despite being at the point of the spear on the Defense and applying excellent ball pressure, on offense she is more like the hand on the back end of the spear. You don't see the back-hand because it is not in your face or stabbing you like the pointed end, but you can be sure the back-hand is the one making the pointed end so dangerous.   She grabbed 5 big rebounds in the finals and is contributing 5.4 points, 1.7 rebounds, and shooting 30.8% from three-point range on the season. Those are the stats I can get from the KHSAA. But it is the stats they leave out that would tell you in an instant how important she is. Her Assists, Steals, Turnover, Assist to Turnover Ratio and Minutes played while putting forth a high-energy effort to propel this team to victory.     [player_tooltip player_id='379876' first='Kylee' last='Steffen'] - 5'9" - SF - Owen County - 2026   Last year Steffen scored 50 points and had 23 rebounds. She has already scored 116 points this season and has the second-most rebounds on the team at 57 through 16 games. More than double the output in about a half-season's worth of games. To say that she has stepped up to answer the needs of the team is an understatement. She is now averaging 7.7 points, 3.8 rebounds, and making 34.8% of her attempts from three-point range. In the finals, she scored 7 points and came away with 8 rebounds while playing tough defense all night against an out-matched but scrappy opponent. She made a few moves that made me take notice during the onslaught the Lady Rebels put in during the 2nd Quarter. She penetrated from the Free Throw Line, trend her back to the basket, and made an inside turn followed by a step-through for a layup. Then she buried a defender in the post and made an outside turn for another layup. Moves like those are not the kind you expect a Freshman to be able to make. Not with the quickness and fluidity she made them. Having learned my lesson with Logan. And having seen those two plays of offensive execution I am going to have to place Steffan into our Rankings at the end of the season. I don't know how highly (or lowly) she should be ranked because I am severely behind in my knowledge of the class of 2026. But I know Steffen belongs on that list.     Rachel Howard - 5'10" - SG - Owen County - 2024   Howard contributed 5 points and 6 rebounds in the finals. To demonstrate how much she has grown as a player since last year she only scored 3 points in all 4 games of the All "A" Classic last year. Back then, she was the player that Coach Wesselman put in the game to steal time and not hurt the time. A player who would play good defense and give you her all while someone else had to sit for a brief rest or with foul trouble. Now, she is a full-on starter that still gives the team everything she has and plays good defense for nearly every minute of the game.   She has also almost doubled her scoring output from the previous season with 170 points (7.1 per game) as compared to 88 points in '21-'22. And she has almost collected as many rebounds this year 53 as she did last season (61). At this rate, with 3.5 rebounds per game, she will surpass last season's totals in a game or two and likely finish the year with at least twice as many boards. She is also posting highly impressive shooting percentages: 48.1% Field Goals, 33.3% Three-pointers, and 65.5% Free Throws. Look for Howard to continue to be a key feature of the Lady Rebels.

Sorry this is LATE BUT I just found out I can offer a 30% Discount to New Subscribers that use my CODE - Mercer30
So use it is you want. Let me know if it works and how it works. is it case-sensitive etc?

Returning to the All "A" Classic from the 8th Region are the Owen County Lady Rebels, the Defending Champs of 2022. The team has retooled and shifted its personnel around a little to reflect the talent that was lost and the talent that has been gained and developed in the off-season. They stand poised to give it another go in what could be their last All "A" Classic for several years and perhaps ever. The school size has grown enough, and some other schools around the state have lost enough students that Owen County will not qualify for Class A status in subsequent years. The good news is there is now a 2A Championship to play for but, at least for now, their days of competing in Class A are coming to a close.