Monday, March 14th, 2022
Rangers fall short
New Knoxville can't close out comeback in DIV title game
By Tom Haines
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
New Knoxville's Rebecca Leffel vies for a jump ball with Waterford's Cara Taylor on Saturday.
DAYTON - After hounding and harrying teams into submission for 29 games, New Knoxville ran up against a better defense with a state title on the line.
The Rangers started slow, only shot 20% from the field, and couldn't finish a comeback in a 35-26 loss to Waterford in the Division IV girls basketball state championship at University of Dayton Arena on Saturday.
The loss, in coach Tim Hegemier's final game, ends New Knoxville's season at 27-3 as the state runner-up for the first time since 2007. The Rangers are still searching for their first state championship.
"I told the girls after the game, I said, 'Nothing to hang your heads about,'" Hegemier said. "Probably one of the most successful girls programs to come out around our area, as far two sports, volleyball and basketball. Just about got it in basketball."
Haley Fledderjohann hit a pair of free throws with 35 seconds left in the third quarter to cut the deficit to 21-18, and Avery Henschen blocked a shot by Waterford's Cara Taylor in the waning seconds to keep the deficit at three heading into the fourth.
On the first possession of the fourth, Fledderjohann found Henschen for a long jumper just inside the arc to make it 21-20 with 7:50 to play.
"It got close, I was like, 'We just got to push," Henschen said. "But (we) missed a few open shots and they got us back down."
Layken Jones missed a three on the Wildcats' next possession and Carsyn Henschen grabbed the rebound to give the Rangers a chance to take the lead. Avery Henschen missed inside and the ball bounced out of bounds off Waterford, and Fledderjohann missed a three from the left corner that went to Wildcats center Avery Wagner.
Waterford (25-3) didn't waste its second chance. Mackenzie Suprano got the ball on the left wing and fired a three over Ellie Gabel, hitting nothing but net to stretch the lead to four.
"I thought I airballed it," Suprano said. "It looked a little short. But then it went in and pushed our lead up to four, so it was kind of a nice little cushion, but then also, we still have to keep attacking." She laughed. "It was okay."
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
New Knoxville's Carsyn Henschen tries to get a shot off past Waterford's Avery Wagner in the Division IV state championship game at University of Dayton Arena on Saturday.
Carsyn Henschen grabbed the rebound on a Rangers miss, but Wagner blocked Avery Henschen's shot and grabbed the rebound, then got a layup to make it 26-20 with 5:36 left.
Carsyn Henschen hit a free throw on the other end, but Lilly Franchino answered with a three from the left wing that rattled home with just under five minutes to play.
"Just a couple breakdowns," Hegemier said of the two threes. "We had some wide open looks also, we just didn't drop them and they did. That's basically the story of the game. They hit their outside shots and we didn't."
Gabel hit a runner on the other end, her only bucket of the game, and Hegemier called timeout with 4:30 remaining. Gabel stripped the ball on the other end and the Rangers put up three straight shots, with Fledderjohann stuffed under the basket without getting a foul called.
Fledderjohann saved the rebound, but Melisa Waterman was called for a foul fighting for the ball and Waterford took over.
"I thought there in a crucial time when we were under the bucket - there was two times - where we went up for a shot, and nothing was called," Hegemier said. "I'll leave it at that."
Fledderjohann forced a jump ball to get the ball back, but Carsyn Henschen was tied up in the paint and the Wildcats took it away again. Gabel fouled as Taylor brought it up the court, and Taylor hit both ends of a one-and-one to make it 31-23 with 1:53 to play.
Carsyn Henschen hit a three on the right wing with 1:31 left to cut the lead to five, but that was as close as the Rangers got. Taylor missed the front half of another one-and-one, but Gabel missed a three on the other end and Taylor drove from the left side for a layup to make it a seven-point game with 47.3 seconds left.
Wagner passed around the New Knoxville press and Kendall Sury added a layup with 27 seconds left to ice the game.
"Their defense was very good," Waterford coach Jerry Close said. "They rotated very well, they're bigger than us, and it caused us a lot of problems. But I thought the girls made the right play at the right time, and when they got close, we hit a shot."
Trailing by eight coming out of the half, Carsyn Henschen hit a three on the left wing to start the Rangers' comeback. After Sury got a bucket with 5:31 left, Carsyn Henschen answered with a layup and Avery Henschen added a long jumper a minute later to cut the lead to three.
The defenses took over from there, as the two teams only hit two free throws apiece over the final 3 1/2 minutes of the third.
"They were already aggressive in the first half, but they came out very aggressive in the second half and bumped us around a lot," Close said. "That's the thing these kids have had to overcome all season long. The way that teams have beaten us, typically, or kept with us, because our defense has been so good, is to just get physical with us and bump us off the line."
New Knoxville managed just two shots over the first four minutes of the game, but kept Waterford from taking a shot until Suprano flung the ball into the side of the backboard with 4:05 left in the first. But as the Rangers' offense lay dormant, the Wildcats got going, starting with Suprano's trey from the top of the key with 3:05 left.
Madi Hiener added a three from the left wing and put back an airball, and Wagner hit a free throw with 18.7 seconds left to make it 9-0 heading into the second.
New Knoxville shot 0-for-7 in the first and committed six turnovers as the Waterford pressure took its toll.
"Right off the bat, they were picking us up at half-court or so," Hegemier said. "That was their idea, put pressure on the outside so we couldn't get in our offense, and it worked."
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
New Knoxville's Haley Fledderjohann tries to knock a rebound away from Waterford's Avery Wagner in the Division IV state championship game at UD Arena on Saturday.
Fledderjohann got the Rangers on the board with a trey from the right side 40 seconds into the second quarter, but their offense failed to build on it and Franchino brought the lead back to nine with a trey a minute later.
New Knoxville's defense held the Wildcats scoreless for the next four minutes, and Rebecca Leffel and Fledderjohann added threes to cut the lead to three before Waterford pulled away again. Taylor hit an and-one and Sury added a basket in transition to make it 17-9 after the first half.
The Rangers finished 9-of-43 from the field, with top scorer Gabel held to 1-of-13 and 0-of-6 from three. In the fourth quarter, New Knoxville shot 3-of-14 and 1-of-9 from deep.
"Give them credit, I think their defense had a lot to do with it," Hegemier said. "Pressure defense, we didn't recognize it really well. We missed some easy shots inside again, can't miss those against teams like this, at this stage."
Carsyn Henschen finished with nine points to lead the Rangers, while Avery Henschen pulled down 10 rebounds.
