‘Who wouldn’t be nervous?’ Late free throws send McCracken County to Sweet 16 semis.

A sigh of relief was audible all the way from Paducah after Caroline Sivills made both of her only free-throw attempts Friday night at Rupp Arena.

They capped a 14-point effort by the McCracken County senior and, more importantly, sealed a 51-47 win over Ashland Blazer to send her Mustangs to the Mingua Beef Jerky Girls’ Basketball Sweet 16 semifinals.

In McCracken County’s 35 prior games, only six were decided by single digits. The Mustangs (34-2) hadn’t played in such a game since December, also the last month they suffered a loss. Their average margin of victory — 31 points — is greater than the total number of points that nine of their opponents scored against them.

“Sometimes, in tournament play, you just have to find a way to survive and get to the next step,” Mustangs Coach Scott Sivills said.

Caroline, Scott’s daughter, was a 66 percent free-throw shooter coming into the contest.

“Oh yeah, you’re nervous,” Scott said. “I mean, who wouldn’t be nervous? But I love her confidence, getting there and getting in a rhythm with the first one. We called the timeout to get everybody settled on what to do defensively.

“And for her to make the other one was huge.”

A window was open for the Mustangs to put Ashland to bed early, but the Kittens (26-8) stymied the state’s highest-scoring team over the final 16 minutes. After giving up 24 points in the second quarter, Ashland held McCracken County to only 19 second-half points on 7-for-15 shooting. The Mustangs did themselves no favor at the line, where they finished 7-for-14 as a team.

“Too many missed one-and-ones,” Scott said. “That game would’ve been put away a lot earlier if we’d made our free throws, but it’s pressure-packed. They had all the mojo on their end.”

Following a Briley Benton corner three-pointer to extend the Mustangs’ lead to 47-35 early in the fourth, Ashland manufactured a 10-0 run to get within a possession with under two minutes to play. After a few near steals, the Kittens appeared to secure a rebound with about 1:20 left; however, it was quickly whistled as a jump ball in McCracken’s favor. Mikee Buchanan received the inbound pass and connected on a nearby jumper.

Blazer again got within two points and regained possession after McCracken missed the front end of a one-and-one. Kenleigh Woods got into the lane for a layup look, but it fell short and into the hands of Sivills, who then played hero at the stripe with six seconds to go.

On Woods’ drive to potentially tie, Ella Sellars rolled to the wing and had room to shoot what could have been a game-winning three-pointer. Sellars led the Kittens with 20 points and finished 3-for-4 from beyond the arc; Woods was the only other Kitten in double figures with 17.

“We’ve been in that situation before and we just let ’em play it out,” Ashland Coach Stacy Davis said. “ … It’s just a read that we got with and this time it didn’t fall. That’s just how it happens sometimes.”

McCracken County, here for the second year in a row, had never qualified for the Sweet 16 prior to last March. It was one-and-done in 2022, but now stands as one of the state’s final four programs. The Mustangs were scheduled to play the winner of the final quarterfinal, Mercy Academy or Henderson County, at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.

Another grind-it-out affair was more likely to come than the blowouts to which they’ve become accustomed, but the Mustangs will embrace a win by any means necessary at this point. They all count the same.

“We’ve been practicing, especially these past few months, for these types of situations,” Caroline Sivills said. “We all just took a deep breath and still played together as a team. We’ve got each others’ backs.”

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