A player who helped her team reach the national championship game Sunday night was in Russellville the day before.
     Keshia Hines played a huge role in the Louisville Lady Cardinals’ 61-59 win over second-ranked Oklahoma Sunday in the women’s Final Four in St. Louis.
     She battled and nullified the first women’s four-time All-American, massive Courtney Parris, as Louisville came back from a 16-2 deficit. The Lady Cardinals tied it at 37-37 on a shot by Hines and went on to win. Louisville got its first lead when Hines pulled down a defensive rebound and started a fast break that led to an Angel McCoughtry layup. It also got the offense going for McCoughtry, who had not hit 
a field goal in the first half.
      Keshia Hines was here Saturday for the funeral of her beloved grandmother, Claudette Hines of Pontiac. Mich., a Logan County native. Services were held at First Baptist Church, Fifth and Spring, with burial in the Sweatt Cemetery in Lewisburg.
    She flew into Bowling Green on a private plane Friday and then flew out from Bowling Green Saturday afternoon after the funeral.
    Hines had 8 points and 9 rebounds in the national semifinals. She also made the Parris twins, Courtney and Ashley, irrelevant until Hines picked up her fourth foul with 9:30 remaining in the game.
    Hines and the Lady Cardinals will play undefeated and fellow Big East team Connecticut in the national championship game. They last met in the Big East Conference Tournament finals with the Lady Huskies winning easily.
    Veteran play-by-play announcer Mike Patrick called Hines’ Final Four play “sensational.”  Analyst Dorris Burke said, “Keshia Hines has been terrific, just as she was in the regional finals win over Maryland.”
    She is so important to the Lady Cardinals’ push for a national championship that The Courier-Journal of Louisville carried a story about her coming here in Saturday’s editions.
   Clarissa Hines was the daughter of the late Ben Copeland and Roseuta Wallace.  From the time she was just two months old, she was raised by aunt and uncle, Ruth and the late Eugene Hampton of Logan County.
    She married James ‘Double’ Hines of Adairville, and they moved to the Detroit area for better employment opportunities. They were married for 42 years before his death a few years ago.
    Their daughter Felecia is the basketball player’s mother, but she was raised by her grandmother.
     Hines told The C-J that she was comforted by her teammates and coaches, noting the Cardinals are “sisters and we all stick together.
     Coach Jeff Walz, a former Western Kentucky University assistant, said, “She knows that she’s loved and there is a family here.”
     It’s ironic that a Lady Cardinal flew into Bowling Green this week. Louisville should have been a number one or two seed playing its first round games at Diddle Arena, but the committee made them a number three and sent them on the road to play former national champion LSU at Baton Rouge. Louisville showed what it was made of by beating LSU and then knocking off another former national champion, Maryland, for a trip to the Final Four.
     Hines played extremely well against Maryland last Monday night. She had eight points and six rebounds and played strong defense as the Cards beat the taller Terrapins 77-60. That was a few hours after her grandmother had died.
    Keshia Hines came to the University of Louisville with some impressive credentials. She averaged 18 points and 13 rebounds for Auburn Hills High School to be named Michigan’s Gatorade Player of the Year. She played on one of the best AAU teams in America.
     As a freshman at the Ville, the 6-2 forward/center played in all 36 games, averaging 5.7 points and 4.3 rebounds. She scored 25 points against the Florida Lady Gators. She shot 52.1 percent from the field.
     In this special national finals season, she has played in all 38 games, starting 11. She is playing 21.2 minutes per game, limited somewhat by her early tendency to pick up fouls in a hurry. Hines fouled out of the first two games and had at least four fouls in six of the first 12. So Coach Walz took her out of the starting lineup to keep her around for clutch time.
     She’s also learned more about how to play without excessive fouling. She’s fouled out only three times since those first two games and hasn’t been disqualified on fouls since mid-January.
     Hines, who recently turned 20, is averaging 6.4 points (4^th on the team) and 4.7 rebounds, trailing only first team All-American Angel McCoughtry and higly regarded Candyce Bingham. Both are seniors. She is second on the team in blocks with 24, trailing only McCoughtry, who probably will have a statue built in her honor in Louisville.
     Going into the Final Four, Hines also had 25 assists and an impressive 52 steals, a figure you don’t usually see for post players. She’s third on the team in steals.
     Keshia Hines is the great niece of former Auburn High School basketball players Larry and Donnie Hampton, now of Russellville. “We have been aware of Keshia’s basketball career for a long time,” Donnie Hampton says. “We see her on television whenever we can, and got to see her play at Western last year.”
     One of Keshia’s cousins, Brittany Hampton, is a starter for Russellville High School in basketball and softball. Another cousin, Dontray Hampton, was an outstanding football player at RHS and also played for Campbellsville University.
     Other local survivors include Eugene and Gayle Hampton, Flora Copeland and Bobby Copeland.