BY JESSE SMITHEY
COOKEVILLE — Spending 9 of 32 minutes on the bench during Saturday’s Division II-AA Girls Championship surely wasn’t how Sydney Mains envisioned for her final high school game.
Foul trouble for most of the contest against rival Webb left the Knoxville Catholic senior guard sedentary and spectating.
But the true testament to how far the Catholic girls’ basketball program has come the last four years under head coach Travis Mains is that the Lady Irish still won Saturday’s title matchup, 53-39, with their star player and Mains’ daughter not on the floor as much.
Mains still managed to net 16 points. But Amaya Redd (17 points), Tinsley Walker (nine), Caroline Krueger (four) and Maggie Frana (four) all contributed in major ways in Mains’ stead.
“We need Sydney, but they’ve grown to where they just going to pick up and roll with it,” said Travis Mains. “It was a team effort. It’s been that way the whole year.”
Catholic (28-5) defeated Webb for the fourth time in as many tries this season and won its second consecutive state championship — a far cry to the Lady Irish’s decades of futility that proceeded the Mains’ arrival in April of 2020.
Sydney Mains was named state tournament MVP. Redd and Walker joined her on the all-tournament team.
For Webb (24-10), the Lady Spartans made a remarkable run under first-year head coach Greg Hernandez, who took over for legendary Lady Spartans coach Shelley Collier.
But he didn’t get the job until August. That meant he didn’t even get to work with his new players in the summer weeks. They had to build trust quickly for Webb to reach the state final for the first time since 2018.
Sophomore Meeyah Green (12 points) and eighth-grader Kyndall Mays (eight) made the all-tournament team.
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CRITICAL POINT
Though she knew to try and play more cautiously, Mains picked up her fourth foul just before the 5-minute mark of the third quarter. She ultimately checked out with 4:51 to go in the third and the Lady Irish leading 33-27.
Webb did little to take advantage of Mains’ absence, going 3:51 without scoring.
“They fought and competed,” Hernandez said of his Webb team. “They did everything I asked them to do.
“We struggled to get in a real good flow offensively. … We struggled to get enough stops. They crash the boards hard and battle. Credit to them.”
Catholic took a 36-29 advantage in the final quarter. It scored at the buzzer but officials scrubbed the score off, ruling it late.
No matter.
On the opening possession of the fourth, Frana grabbed a teammate’s miss under the basket and made a backwards layup putback to give Catholic a 38-29 lead.
THE FINAL STRETCH
Consecutive buckets by Webb eighth-grader Mays cut Webb’s deficit to 38-33 with 5:25 to play.
Soon after, though, a technical foul on Webb’s bench sent Mains to the foul line, and she made both to bump the lead to 40-33.
Mains hit a 3 with 4:47 left to make the lead 10.
Redd’s transition left-handed bucket with 4:02 to go made the lead 11.
The lead never dipped below 10 the final 3 minutes.
FIRST HALF
Catholic led 27-20 at the break, the same seven-point advantage it darted out to get early in the first.
Indeed, Catholic jumped to a 7-0 lead but when Mains got whistled for her second foul of the first quarter at the 2:53 mark, Webb started mounting its comeback. It nailed two free throws to get on the board and then only trailed 12-9 going into the second quarter. Not bad for Webb considering Catholic went 2-for-2 from the floor and 6-for-6 at the foul line in the first eight minutes.
Mains checked back in to start the second quarter, and the Lady Spartans ramped up their defensive efforts against Catholic. It backfired somewhat, as Webb sophomore star Green — who had 27 points in a semifinal win — picked up her second foul at the 7:21 mark of the second quarter.
Over the next two minutes, Mains scored five points in a 7-0 run that gave the Lady Irish a 19-11 lead by the 5:15 media timeout of the second quarter. She buried a 3 and then a deft mid-range jumper to construct the spurt.
Webb answered with a run of its own.
Freshman guard Cailyn Taylor and sophomore Avery Green each popped in a 3, and then Webb took its first lead, 20-19, on a 3 by Katelyn Overton.
Mains’ 3 with 1:10 remaining before half put Catholic back out front (22-20) but she was hit with a reach-in foul 11 seconds later, relegating her to the bench with three fouls the final minute of the second quarter.
Her teammates picked up the slack.
Redd hit a jumper and Sydney English banked in a 3 from the left wing just before the buzzer.
“I knew once (the foul trouble) was done, there was nothing I could do to go back and change it,” Sydney Mains said. “So I had to be a supportive teammate, encourage where I could and give tips and pointers where I could.
“Just doing the most that I could from the bench.”