Monday, February 21st, 2022
Panthers Rising
Parkway girls reach districts for first time since 1991
By Tom Haines
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Parkway's Gabrielle Stober goes up for a jump shot against New Bremen at Lappin Gymnasium on Saturday.
SHAWNEE - The Parkway girls basketball team is going to its first district tournament in 31 years.
The Panthers beat New Bremen 43-40 in a thriller at Lappin Gymnasium on Saturday, earning their first sectional title since 1991 and the right to face Marion Local in the Division IV Wapakoneta district semifinal on Thursday.
The Flyers won the opener 40-20 over St. Henry, pulling away in the second quarter behind a ferocious defensive effort and holding on the rest of the way.
Parkway 43, New Bremen 40
With the Panthers making a charge in the third quarter, New Bremen got a little breathing room on a baseline jumper by Mallory Messick that made it 29-25 with 3:04 left in the third.
But a minute later, Parkway's Allison Hughes converted a hoop-and-harm, the Cardinals were called for traveling, and Gabrielle Stober drove the lane for a layup that rattled down with 1:25 remaining, giving the Panthers their first lead since Lily Lennartz put New Bremen ahead with a trey with 4:41 left in the first.
"We went to our zone a little bit more," Parkway coach Dan Williamson said. "The first half we did a little bit of zone, but we were just not real crisp on our rotations. So we talked about that at halftime, who was going where and what their jobs were. The third quarter especially, I thought our zone was really, really good."
Hughes added a turnaround jumper with 53.3 seconds left and the Panthers went into the fourth with a three-point lead, having erased a four-point halftime deficit. The Cardinals mustered just nine points in the third, with Messick's jumper their only field goal.
"Just couldn't finish at the basket, small mistakes that we made," New Bremen coach Andy Timmerman said. "Just didn't put a complete game together. But I'm proud of these girls."
After New Bremen cut the lead to two with a breakaway layup less than 90 seconds into the fourth, Stober hit a trey from the left elbow to make it 36-31 with 6:13 to play. Freund cut the deficit back to three with a pair of free throws, and again Stober extended the lead, this time with a one-handed layup.
Freund answered and Paige Williamson hit three of four free throws as the Cardinals went into the double bonus, giving the Panthers their largest lead of the day at 41-35 with 2:39 left. But within 26 seconds, Abi Powers hit a shot from the baseline, New Bremen forced a turnover in the backcourt, and Freund drained a trey from the left corner to make it 41-40.
"When we had that adversity, we didn't let it get us down, we moved on to the next play," Parkway coach Williamson said. So that was the best thing to see, because we have not always been able to do that this season. We handled adversity the right way, and we were mentally tough enough to handle being in those tight moments for a quarter and a half."
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Parkway's Allison Hughes (10) tries to get the ball away from New Bremen's Kaylee Freund during Saturday's tournament game at Shawnee.
Emiree Knittle had two chances to make it a three-point game, but her put-back rolled around the rim and fell off and Riley Trentman got the rebound. Freund drew a foul with 44.8 seconds left as Hughes fouled out, but missed both shots, and New Bremen's Chloe Homan was called for a foul going for the rebound.
Knittle hit the first free throw but missed the second, but Freund missed a layup and Stober snatched the rebound, forcing the Cardinals to send her to the line with 12.5 seconds left. Again she hit the first, a high-arcing throw to make it 43-40, but with a chance to effectively ice the game, the second free throw bounced out, sending Freund and Knittle diving after it along the baseline.
Freund couldn't corral the ball inbounds, giving the Panthers possession with eight seconds left. But Stober tried for a layup on the inbounds pass, the shot missed and skittered across the court, and Timmerman called timeout as the Cardinals grabbed at the ball near mid-court.
With just three seconds left, the Cardinals inbounded the ball to Trentman near the left elbow, who launched a trey through contact with Knittle. The refs let it go, the shot fell short, and the Panthers' side of the court erupted in celebration.
"Just trying to execute that last-second situation, I thought we did an okay job," Timmerman said. "We got a look, it just didn't fall."
Since losing to eventual state champion Fort Recovery in the district tournament in 1991, the Panthers have scuffled. In just the past 20 years, Parkway had only been to the sectional final seven times and lost all seven by an average margin of 23.7 points.
"I'm just kind of speechless right now," coach Williamson said. "Not that I didn't think we would be able to win the game, but just how it started, I was a little worried, obviously. But we settled down, and the third quarter was huge for us."
Stober, a junior, finished with 20 points, three days after scoring 21 in a narrow win over Ada, and scored her 1,000th point on a free throw in the first quarter.
"Gab is one of those players that you don't get to coach too often," coach Williamson said. "Just super athletic, super competitive, great kid. So we're going to hop on her back and go as far as she can take us."
Hughes finished with 11 points and nine rebounds. Freund scored 13 and pulled down 13 rebounds for the Cardinals.
Marion Local 40, St. Henry 20
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Marion Local's Molly winner puts pressure on St. Henry's Leah Lefeld (40) during Saturday's Division IV sectional game at Shawnee High School.
The Redskins hung tough on defense in the first quarter and were only outscored 15-12 in the second half. But in the second quarter, the Flyers went off.
After Lindsey Koenig stretched the Marion lead to 8-4 11 seconds into the second quarter, the Flyers' pressure started to fluster St. Henry. The Redskins turned the ball over on an over-and-back trying to get the ball out of a trap, and Nora Eckstein hit a short jumper to extend the lead.
Koenig hit a layup, St. Henry turned it over again, and Avae Unrast got open on the right elbow for a three, stretching the lead to 15-4 with 4:57 left in the half.
"We struggled at times to start, especially offensively," Marion coach Beth Streib said. "In the first half we tried using our defense to get our offense going, because we weren't getting shots to start."
St. Henry finally got a bucket with 3:28 left as Jalynn Everman drove for a layup, but Stella Huelsman responded right away and the Redskins promptly turned the ball over again. Huelsman hit two free throws and Chloe Ronnebaum and Molly Winner added buckets to make it 25-8 going into the half.
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Marion Local's Stella Huelsman goes airborne to prevent St. Henry's Jalynn Everman from getting to the hoop at Lappin Gymnasium on Saturday.
The Flyers scored the first eight points of the second half before Lauren Beyke got the Redskins back on the board with 5 1/2 minutes left in the third. But from there, Marion managed just one free throw as St. Henry cut the lead back down to 17.
"We were settling for the outside shot way too much," Streib said. "We were 1-for-11 from the 3-point line at halftime. So we tried to really focus on getting inside."
St. Henry held the Flyers to just six points in the fourth quarter, but couldn't get its offense going for a comeback, with Everman hitting a layup for the Redskins' only field goal of the final period.
Huelsman was the only player in double digits, finishing with 10 points. Claire Wendel pulled down 10 rebounds for the Redskins.
