A star wasn’t born Thursday night, but she shined about as brightly as possible in her debut on the state’s biggest stage.
Behind a stat-stuffing display from freshman Shaelyn Steele, Russell defeated Dixie Heights, 58-44, in the final first-round contest of the Mingua Beef Jerky/KHSAA Girls’ Sweet Sixteen on Thursday night.
Steele, who has offers from Eastern Kentucky and Marshall, ended the night with 18 points, six rebounds, six blocks, three assists and two steals to lead the Red Devils in their first state-tournament win since 1976, when it reached the semifinals. The lone blemish on her stat line was in the turnover column; she was tagged with six of Russell’s 13 as a team.
Steele didn’t even commit a foul.
“Bigger the game, bigger the stage, the better she is,” Russell Coach Mandy Layne said. “We’ve been saying the last couple years that she’s the best point guard in the state, and I’m so glad that everyone gets to see her again tomorrow.”
BOX SCORE: Russell 58, Dixie Heights 44
Steele’s debut should have been last year. Russell, the 16th Region champion for just the sixth time, was scheduled to meet Bowling Green in last year’s tournament before it was postponed and subsequently canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Red Devils went 0-for-2 in their most recent appearances (1994 and 2016) before snapping Dixie Heights’ 22-game win streak to punch their ticket to the quarterfinals, where they’ll meet Henderson County.
Aubrey Hill, a senior, nearly had a double-double before halftime. She finished with 22 points (on 10-of-12 shooting) and nine rebounds, both game highs.
“She dominated,” Layne said. “She’s become one of the best posts in the state.”
A hot-shooting first period for both teams — Russell went 8-for-12 from the floor and Dixie Heights nearly matched it at 7-for-14 — ended with the Red Devils in front, 19-15. Hill scored eight of her points in the frame.
The shot-making slowed for both in the second period but cratered for the Colonels, who pulled within 22-20 on a Laci Reinhart trey with 6:18 left in the quarter and didn’t score again until there were 25 seconds left in the half. Russell amid that drought used an 8-0 run to push its lead to double digits before settling on a 32-23 halftime edge thanks to a tip-in by Hill with seven seconds remaining.
Dixie Heights held Russell without a point for a four-minute stretch in the middle of the third but couldn’t make up much ground in that span, closing just within seven points, 36-29. Hill with 2:02 left in the period drew a charge, sparking a 7-0 run that started with her first bucket of the second half. Steele got a friendly bounce on a jumper and Kaeli Ross connected on a corner triple as time expired to make it 43-29, Red Devils, through three.
“I’m not gonna lie, I honestly didn’t know the time at the moment of the shot but when I found that the buzzer rang I was like, ‘Wow, OK,” said Ross, who finished 2-for-10, both makes from three-point range. “It just felt nice to shoot it and actually get out of my slump there for a second.”
The Colonels never got closer than 11 points in the fourth. They were in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1992.
“Some of the best memories of my life,” Colonels Coach Joel Steczynski said of his group.
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