Red-hot Redskins

ST. HENRY - The St. Henry Redskins were red hot.

Celina was not.

Addy Vaughn scored 12 of her game-high 18 points in the first quarter, and St. Henry went on to rout Celina 63-25 behind a 56.8% shooting performance Monday at Redskin Gymnasium.

After losing their first game of the season last week against Coldwater, St. Henry coach Kyle Menchhofer has liked what he's seen since.

"We had great looks (against Coldwater), but the shots we took last week weren't on balance," Menchhofer said. "We focused on that Saturday and we were better against Sidney Lehman. Tonight was a lot better."

Menchhofer earned his 100th career coaching win on a night in which his team did little wrong.

As for the Bulldogs, just about everything went wrong, coach Cenzie Rushton said.

St. Henry held an 18-4 lead after one quarter - in large part thanks to the post performance by Addy Vaughn, who went 5-of-5 shooting with a pair of and-1s. Celina, meanwhile, made just 2-of-11 shots in the frame.

The other two Vaughn triplets, Nora and Marlee, got involved in the second quarter. Each girl hit 3-pointers, Mia Niekamp added another trey, while Alyssa Buschur and Addy Vaughn scored four points apiece to help St. Henry claim a 37-7 advantage at halftime.

The Redskins took their first 20-point lead with 5:30 remaining in the first half. The Bulldogs' lone field goal in the second quarter was a 3 by Emma Homan.

St. Henry finished the first half 15-of-23 shooting. Celina went 3-of-16.

"I think we gave up 10-plus O-boards in the first half," Rushton said. "We have to learn to play less on instincts because our instincts aren't high-basketball IQ yet and more on executing the details we practice and game plan. You can't lose the battle of the boards like that. You can't have girls driving in on you and scoring at will. I don't know what their shooting percentage was, but our defense is about contesting all 3s and we didn't do that tonight. We had girls just running into screens. I think our girls played hard, but we've got to play smarter."

Buschur had nine third-quarter points with Nora Vaughn adding seven. Maria Lutz tallied all six of her points in the third quarter for the Bulldogs, who trailed 58-16 at the end.

The Redskins were 23-of-36 shooting through three quarters and finished 25-of-44.

Addy Vaughn ended 8-of-10 shooting and 2-of-2 at the foul line for a game-high 18 points. Buschur was a perfect 6-of-6 shooting and 2-of-2 at the foul line for 16 points. Nora Vaughn hit 4-of-9 shots on her way to 11 points.

"Addy kind of runs our engine a little bit and gets us going," Menchhofer said. "These seniors have played together for so long, they know each other and I can hear them talking and so on. It's just a matter of getting them to play my system instead of the system that they're used to. It's starting to come. They're starting to see some of the openings."

Celina was 10-of-37 shooting. Makenna Klingshirn scored a team-high seven points for the Bulldogs, who will take a 2-0 Western Buckeye League record into Thursday's home contest against Kenton.

The red-hot Redskins - out to one of their best starts in recent memory at 6-1 - will get tested when unbeaten Tri-Village rolls into town on Saturday.

"We have a tough schedule," Menchhofer said. "Three of the four teams that were at the regional are on our schedule. We've got Tri-Village on Saturday. It's going to be a tough challenge, but what a way to see where we're at."