Leah Macy celebrates with teammates after Thursday's win over Cooper. (Les Nicholson Photo)
There’s only one way Leah Macy’s performance against Cooper could have been any better.
The Mercy sophomore had 37 points and 21 rebounds — 25 points and 10 rebounds in the second half — in the 70-64 victory in the first round of the state tournament. It was the seventh highest scoring game in state tourney history and second most rebounds ever in a state game.
She was 11 of 21 from the field and 15 of 20 at the foul line. She even had two assists, one block and one steal while playing all but 18 seconds of the intense matchup that puts Mercy into the state quarterfinals today.
So how could it have been any better?
Three more points would have enabled her to reach 2,000 points but that is major nitpicking because Macy had the best game I’ve ever seen a Kentucky high school girl have in my 48 years of covering high school basketball.
The 6-2 Macy, a top 20 recruit nationally in her class, had to handle the ball the majority of the game against Cooper’s aggressive defense because point guard Alyssa Murphy, the team’s second leading scorer, did not play because of a knee injury. She had six turnovers but considering how much she had the ball and the pressure Cooper tried to put on her, Mercy coach Nick Cann could more than live with that because of the way Macy overpowered defenders with her strength and intellect.
She also did all this despite jamming a finger on her shooting hand on the game’s first play. She had the finger taped in the first half but had the tape removed in the second half.
“Adrenaline just took over. With Murphy out I had to play point guard. That’s a big part of my game and I am just glad I got to show it off. So I just looked at the positive side of it,” Macy said.
She also played the last five minutes with four fouls after teammate Emma Barnett, who went 4-for-4 on 3’s, fouled out and Cooper cut a 15-point Mercy lead with six minutes to play to four points with 38 seconds to play.
“It was a little scary,” she said about playing with four fouls. “I was just keeping myself under control and not doing anything stupid offensively or defensively. Just grabbing every rebound. They doubled us on the press so somebody had to be open.”
Cann praised his team for playing short-handed — two backup guards are also out with injuries but knows what he has in Macy, the state’s leading rebounder with 13 per game.
“Leah is such a mismatch. She is just hard to handle,” Cann said.
Cooper coach Justin Holthaus expected Mercy to lean heavily on Macy. She had 37 points in a 67-64 loss earlier this season to Cooper.
“She is tough. She’s only a sophomore and is a really good player,” Holthaus said. “We tried some different looks. We tried to double in the post. She shoulders the load for them.”
She does that in a variety of ways, too.
— With just over four minutes to play, she dished to teammate Olivia Pifer for a layup.
— With 3:50 to play, she powered inside to score.
— With 2:13 left, she drove inside, drew the fifth foul on Cooper’s Logan and hit the free throw to complete the 3-point play.
— With Mercy leading 69-64 and 26 seconds left, Macy rebounded a Cooper miss to basically secure the win.
Macy sets lofty goals for herself. She wants to become the first Kentucky girl to reach 2,000 rebounds and certainly is on pace to go over 3,000 points.
She is averaging 24.5 points per game and shooting 62 percent from the field and 81 percent at the foul line — she has been to the line 203 times in 33 games.
Macy just turned 16 in December. She hears regularly from many of the nation’s best coaches and more likely will be in touch this summer.
“Recruiting never slows down,” Macy said.
Based on what she did against Cooper, there’s certainly no reason for recruiting to ever slow down because she truly is a generational type player.
Leah Macy
Photos by Les Nicholson
2 Responses
Wonderful article about the young girl.. Her great uncle was Dan Swartz from Owingsville/Bath County. Dan signed to play with Kentucky and did play as a freshman sometime around 1950. Dan didn’t like the academic side so he moved on to Morehead State. I believe he led the nation in scoring one or two years while he was there.
I did not know that Enoch