The Knoxville Catholic Lady Irish pose with their 2023 Division II-AA State Championship on Saturday, March 4, 2023, at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville. (Photo: TSSAA)
BY JESSE SMITHEY
In three years’ time, the Knoxville Catholic girls’ basketball program underwent a mind-bending transformation — from a decades-long cellar-dwelling team hoping to hit .500 to a TSSAA state champion.
And while it almost evolved to such in Travis Mains’ first year as coach in 2020-21, the final stage actually took shape Saturday afternoon in Cookeville, where the Lady Irish unseated defending Division II-AA state champion Ensworth and its All-American star guard.
Sydney Mains, the junior Miss Basketball finalist and daughter of the head coach, scored a team-high 33 points, got a critical rebound late and made 3 of 4 foul shots in the final 22 seconds to lift the Lady Irish to a 64-59 win at Tennessee Tech.
Mains was named Tournament MVP, as her heroics edged a 41-point, 13-rebound effort by Ensworth’s Jaloni Cambridge, the No. 1-ranked player nationally in the Class of 2024 who is the two-time defending Miss Basketball in Division II-AA.
Catholic (21-12) captured its first-ever TSSAA girls’ basketball state championship, having finished runner-up in 2021 and as a state finalist last season.
“We kept saying, ‘We’re going to win it, we’re going to win it.’ But even after the fact, I was so shocked. I kept saying, ‘I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it,” said Catholic senior point guard Jaz Williams, the first big building piece of the Lady Irish’s title journey. Williams played her freshman season at Catholic for Freeman Pinkey in 2019-20.
“We worked so hard all the time, and we’re so dedicated to what we do. We kept saying “we’re going to win it, we’re going to win it.’ And we finally did. And it’s so different to see it really happen and to feel it.”
Williams finished six rebounds and five assists.
Ensworth (27-5) led 10-0 to begin the contest, as it looked like it might run away with the state championship for a second season in a row. Amaya Redd (14 points, six rebounds) finally got Catholic on the board at the 4:27 mark of the first.
But Ensworth trailed at the half and led by just two going into the fourth.
Moreover, Ensworth found itself down 60-56 after two Sydney Mains free throws with 1:27 to play. Cambridge got a score to trim the Catholic lead to two.
Later down 61-58, Cambridge went to the line with 28 seconds to go. She made the first, missed the second, got the rebound, missed a shot that would have tied the game at 61-all — and Mains got the defensive rebound.
Mains, who was fouled with 22 seconds to go, made both shots to give the Lady Irish a 63-59 advantage.
Cambridge missed two 3s in the ensuing possession, and Catholic finally latched onto the defensive rebounded needed to seal it.
Mains added one last free throw to put a final stamp on a season in which she missed the first month because of her ongoing recovery from a spring knee injury and surgery.
The rehabilitation and comeback efforts were rewarded.
Catholic did itself no favors in the early going, though, allowing Ensworth to race out to a 10-0 advantage midway through the first quarter — hardly the recipe for trying to stir up an upset.
But the Lady Irish proved their worth and battled back to lead at the break, 29-27. Getting aggressive and getting to the foul line helped the comeback and the Lady Irish made 11 of 15 at the free-throw line through the first two quarters.
Sydney Mains had 12 first-half points and was 6 off 6 at the line. Her two free throws with 5:09 left in the second quarter knotted the score at 20-all.
She made two more roughly 18 seconds later, to give Catholic its first lead (22-20).
Ensworth shot just four foul shots in the first 16 minutes but got a big first half from Cambridge. She had 17 points and five rebounds at half.
Enworth tried to break free in the third and opened a 36-32 lead, but Catholic freshman guard Evaiya Mitchell decided otherwise. She went on a personal 7-2 run that gave the Lady Irish a 39-38 lead with just more than 2 minutes remaining before the fourth quarter.
Enworth led 43-41 with a quarter to play, and Mains opened the fourth with a big 3 to recapture the lead.
That wouldn’t be her only big bucket of the quarter … a fourth for the ages for Catholic.
“It’s a surreal feeling,” said Sydney Mains. “These seniors have a special place in my heart. So to achieve that for them, and also for us and our school, because we’ve never won one for girls, it’s a very surreal feeling.”