2021 KHSAA Girls' Sweet 16 Preview

LEXINGTON, Ky (WTVQ) - Last season, girls basketball teams in Kentucky were able to play four games before the KHSAA Sweet 16 was shut down due to the pandemic.

A year later, the girls are returning to Rupp Arena for the state tournament.

C1 3 tely...they all play each other in the first round.

Out of the 12th region..

Southwestern is back in the sweet 16 for the second time in four years.

The warriors will have a tough test..

Going up against one of the favorites in the tournament..

Anderson county.

But as we saw last week..

Anything can happen in a one-game scenario.

Head coach junior molden says his group is excited about playing the underdog role, but the lady bearcats are legit.

Junior molden "they're very good defensively, might be the best defensive team in the state.

Their extended 2-3 is really good, their athleticism and length.

If we take care of the ball, we'll compete with them.

If some of our youth shows up, then we'll have some problems. our biggest thing is take care of the ball and rebound."

Last season, 8 girls' basketball teams played in the sweet 16 before it was canceled.

Anderson county was one of those schools.

They just barely squeaked by franklin county 40 to 37.

They came into that tournament with 5 losses...this season...they've gotten even better.

They have two losses and spent the vast majority of this season ranked #1.

But don't throw out the term favorite in front of head coach clay birdwhistell.

Clay birdwhistell "if you told me 15 years ago that people would try to be sneaking into a high school girls' basketball game, i'd called you a liar, but that's what it was.

People were dying to get in to see our games.

And there's a responsibility with that.

We've gotta go out and we've gotta look the part.

Whether you hit shots or not, that's gonna come from game to game, but we're gonna go out there and play and represent our community."

As we just talked about...franklin county was one of the 8 teams to play in the sweet 16 last season.

They were also one of the four who lost.

To put it in simple terms...this season has been interesting for the lady flyers.

They entered the easy as one of the teams everyone thought could cut down the nets this week.

Then adversity hit...a three week shutdown due to covid and then when they restarted...franklin would lose three of their next five games.

Since then though...they have righted the ship and won their last eight games.

Joey thacker "we haven't had a ton of consistency all year long, but luckily for us we've had it at the right time.

I think they're ready to go.

I think our kids understand that you're in a situation where 4-minute segments matter and especially the last four minutes of a game and we didn't do that particularly well last year."

Over in london..

South laurel will be tasked with slowing down brooklyn miles and franklin county.

The cards will take on the flyers wendesday night at five.

South laurel comes to lexington..

Having been the last team to win a game in last year's sweet 16.

This season..

The cardinals are one of 10 teams making their return to rupp arena.

As disppointing as how 2020 ended for them..

Head coach chris souder says that disappointment has turned into a major point of motivation.

Chris souder "this team really struggled early to find our identity because we did lose so much from last year.

And ever so often i would bring that up.

About how it was taken away from us and much harder you're going to have