Brenden Miller Photo
Kentucky’s 2024 Mr. and Miss Basketball winners will be announced Sunday night in Lexington but Pikeville coach Kristy Orem already knows who she believes should be Miss Basketball.
“Even though the votes are already in, Trinity should be Miss Basketball,” said Orem after her team lost 56-49 to Bethlehem in the state tournament Thursday. “She is good but she is that kid that everybody wants to be the picture of Miss Basketball.”
Trinity is Pikeville guard Trinity Rowe, a Southern Mississippi signee who had 17 points, six assists and four rebounds in her final high school game.
She finishes her prep career with 2,410 points and 1,051 assists (she’s only the fifth girl in state history to reach 1,000 assists). She made 372 3-pointers in her career. This season she averaged 17.3 points per game and shot 43 percent from 3 and 87 percent at the foul line.
“She is the kind of kid who does things the right way. She will stay after a football game and clean up garbage,” Orem said. “Find me another kid who knows every little girl’s name like she does.”
To back up what Orem said, Rowe picked up the game ball that was laying on the floor at midcoast and returned it to the official scorekeeper after her final game ended. Many players would have just kept walking and never picked up the basketball. Some might have even kicked it after an intense loss like this one. Not Rowe — she helped out like she always does and then shared an emotional embrace with Bethlehem star Leah Macy in the handshake line.
Orem cried talking about Rowe and the senior point guard cried as she talked after the game. She said she would remember “just how proud” she is of her senior teammates. She had played with most of them since fifth grade.
“It has been an amazing time I have had here,” Rowe said. “It was nothing short of spectacular.”
She thanked not only her senior teammates but younger players who “push us in practice every day” and the team manager.
It was a classy exit but a talented player who certainly has done everything on and off the court to be Miss Basketball.
