Taylor County coach Donnie Swiney thinks West Jessamine junior Clara Marshall has to be a leading candidate for 2027 Miss Basketball. (Tonia Witt Photo)
Taylor County coach Donnie Swiney knows there were two “special” players on the court when Taylor beat West Jessamine 60-58 in the Clark’s Pump-N-Shop Girls’ Basketball Sweet 16® to earn a berth in the quarterfinals this afternoon against Notre Dame.
Taylor freshman Kennedy Deener, a 5-foot-7 point guard, is ranked as the No. 3 player in Kentucky in the 2029 recruiting class by PrepGirlsHoops behind 6-foot-6 Jayden McClain of Ryle and 6-foot point guard Charlotte McCurry of John Hardin.
Erin Boley, a national Gatorade Player of the Year who played for Notre Dame and Oregon, played at Elizabethtown when Swinney coached there. She was a 6-foot-2 center who could also hit 3-point shots. Deener is a physical, quick guard.
“Erin Boley is the best player by far I have had the pleasure of being in the gym with. She was Miss Basketball and the Gatorade Player of the Year,” Swiney said. “Deener is more versatile. Erin was not a point guard. Deener is a much better ball handler. She is faster but not as good a rebounder as Erin. Deener will get stronger but she is pretty strong now.
“She has the mental toughness to lead as a freshman. Some of that is home grown with her family. Some is she is just a tough kid. She is a winner and wants to compete. Every day in practice she asks what competition we are doing. She wants to compete in everything we do.”
Deener had a team-high 19 points, three assists and two steals against West Jessamine to enable Taylor to win a game in the state for the second straight year.
Marshall, a 6-foot junior, just missed a triple-double against Taylor with 19 rebounds, 10 assists, nine points and three steals. She had the same number of rebounds that Taylor did as a team and eight or her rebounds were on the offensive end.
“She is a heck of a player,” Swiney said. “She may be the leading candidate for Miss Basketball next year. With the (knee) injuries she has had and been able to come back from and play at the level she has been playing the last month and a half is impressive. They are 16-5 since she came back. That’s the kind of difference she makes. They are a good team but Claire was unreal, especially on the offensive glass.”
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Bullitt East lost 66-47 to Franklin-Simpson Thursday at the state tourney but just getting his team that far was a major feat for coach Chris Stallings. His team had 12 regular-season losses after a 5-9 start before getting on a late run.
However, an even bigger obstacle was dealing with kidney stones during 6th Region play. He underwent kidney stone surgery on the day of the regional semifinals but ignored his doctor’s advice to still coach what turned out to be a win over Mercer.
“That was a tough night. I didn’t want to let the kids down and the school down. I wanted to be there,” Stallings said after he got Bullitt East back to the state for the first time since 2022. “I just had to gut through one. I left as soon as it was over and laid down for 24 hours. It helped that we had two days (before the regional final).”
He first felt the pain on a Friday night. He went to the emergency room early Saturday and back again Sunday. He went to his family doctor on Monday and then a urologist on Monday afternoon. The surgery was the next day and that night he somehow was back coaching.
“Luckily it all fell into place without me missing too much,” the veteran coach said. “We came together at the right time to get to state and our kids really kept believing in our ability to reach our goals. A lot of times we could have packed it in and didn’t, so I had to be there for them.”
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Senior Teigh Yeast averaged 11.9 points and 3.8 rebounds per game to help George Rogers Clark get back to the state tournament after losing in the title game to Sacred Heart last season.
“We were hungry to get back. We have a lot of depth,” coach Robbie Graham said. “One thing about our team is it is all about GRC. The credit goes to GRC and not any individual,” Graham said. “Any time we have a player that could go for 20 to 25 points but that is not needed for us to be successful.”
GRC proved that Thursday night when it beat North Laurel 55-46in the final first round game to earn a quarterfinal berth today against Franklin-Simpson with its defense. GRC got 29 points off 30 North Laurel turnovers and had 20 steals led by six from Kennedy Stamper and five each by yeast and Eliyah Strode.
Yeast transferred to GRC as a sophomore after her father, Terry Yeast, became GRC’s athletics director.
“She came in as a quiet young lady but she has really grown on the court as far as being more aggressive,” Graham said. “We have really seen a big change with her this year. She was always a great athlete. God blessed her. She’s one of the best defenders you will find.”
Yeast had 14 points, six rebounds and two assists along with her five steals. She guarded a variety of players and was at her in the best fourth quarter when she also hit her only 3-pointer.
“She has a ton of friends in the (school) building. Teachers stop me and say they are thankful to have someone of very high character like her in class,” Graham said. “She is probably the best athlete I have ever coached. She is a multi-time state track champion, volleyball player. If you are just talking pure athleticism, if she is not No. 1, she is right up there.”
However, Strode, an eighth-grader, may eventually surpass Yeast on Graham’s list. She averages 10 points and a team-best 6.1 rebounds per game. She shoots 55 percent from the field. She had nine points, five rebounds and two blocks against North Laurel.
“She is gifted athletically, can run and jump. You forget how long she is,” Graham said. “She gets frustrated at times, but she is a warrior. She has a really bright future in this game. She loves to play and I am looking forward to seeing her growth in the next few years. She could end up being even more gifted than Teigh.”
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Junior center Mariella Claybrook was outstanding for North Laurel in the loss to George Rogers Clark. Despite almost always being double teamed, and sometimes triple teamed, she finished with 28 points on 11-for-14 shooting from the field and 5-for-5 at the foul line. She also had 16 rebounds and six blocked shots.
Graham called Claybrook, who averaged 18 points and 11 rebounds per game, “one of the premier inside players in the state” who is hard to neutralize.
“Kentucky does not have a lot of true post players like we have had in previous years but she is really good,” the GRC coach said.
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A name to remember: Angela Kabeya.
The Simon Kenton eighth-grader had a game-high 29 points in a 70-61 over Ashland. She was 11 of 18 from the field, including 4-for-6 from 3-point range and all four were from the corner. She also had five rebounds, two steals and one block and played all 32 minutes.
Her biggest shot was a 3-pointer to push the lead to 62-54 with 1:44 to go that helped secure the win.
