The Daily Standard
Story Archive
SHAWNEE TOWNSHIP - The Division IV girls basketball tournament opened Wednesday with a pair of Midwest Athletic Conference teams moving on to the sectional final at Lappin Gymnasium.
St. Henry opened the day with a convincing 49-33 victory over Lima Central Catholic, and Parkway survived a nailbiter with a 45-39 win over Ada in the nightcap.
The Redskins will play Marion Local in one sectional final on Saturday starting at 5:30 p.m., while Parkway will take on New Bremen starting around 7:30 p.m.
Parkway's Gabrielle Stober drives between Ada's Kirsten Poling (2) and Courtney Sumner at Lappin Gymnasium in Shawnee on Wednesday.
With the Panthers behind by four midway through the third, coach Dan Williamson implored his team to play with passion and heart in a sideline speech that carried through Lappin Gymnasium, drawing applause from Parkway fans behind the bench.
Ada's Olivia Burkhart hit a runner on the other end to make it 32-26, but then the Panthers started to chip away. After Gabrielle Stober missed a three, freshman Adria Miller flew in to bat the rebound back inbounds to Emiree Knittle, who stepped behind the arc and drained a trey to make it 32-29.
"She's been doing that all season, just making hustle plays and finding a way to make a play," Williamson said of Miller. "She's been big for us all season, but that was huge.
"And for Emiree to catch it, step back, have the wherewithal to know where she was on the floor - she very easily could have caught it and shot it, but she stepped back and nailed it."
Ada got a layup by Daicy Robinson with 7.6 seconds left, but Stober took the ball all the way up the court and hit a layup at the buzzer. The officials called a foul on Robinson and brought Stober out for a free throw that cut the lead to 34-32.
Paige Williamson stole the ball to start the fourth, Stober sank a layup in transition, and Williamson hit a floater to put Parkway up 36-34 with 6:51 left. Two minutes later, Ada's Courtney Sumner hit a trey over Stober while falling back to tie the game at 37.
"That Sumner girl's a really, really good player," coach Williamson said. "Gab made it tough on her, and she hit some really tough threes."
Hughes drew a foul on a second chance and hit both free throws. Sumner tied it with a one-handed layup, but Stober answered to put Parkway back in front.
Stober missed a free throw that would have made it a three-point lead, but Hughes was fouled going for a rebound on the other end, putting Ada in the bonus. Hughes hit two free throws to stretch the lead to four with 2:43 to go, and Parkway held on from there.
"Our defense at the end there is what won the game for us," coach Williamson said. "We locked them down a little bit, and then every loose ball, it seemed like, was ours, whereas before that they were getting most of the loose balls."
The Panthers took an early nine-point lead, but then the script flipped and Ada stormed back. Parkway's offense stalled and Burkhart hit a pair of threes to cut into the deficit.
Hughes, who collected five rebounds in the first quarter, picked up her second foul and spent the final 5:44 of the half on the bench. In her absence, the Panthers watched a 21-12 advantage turn into a 23-22 lead at halftime.
"Early in the game, our rotations were nowhere to be found," coach Williamson said. "They were driving all the way to the hoop, getting layups and fouls."
The swoon bled into the second half, as Ada carried the run to 18-3 and took a 30-24 lead with 5:06 left in the third. Knittle snapped the run 45 seconds later, and the Parkway defense allowed just nine points over the final 13 minutes.
"I challenged them there in one of those timeouts, and they responded," coach Williamson said. "That was huge. Just proud of the girls to gut this one out.
"The name of the game in tournament is survive and advance. We survived," he added with a laugh. "And we get to advance, so that's exciting for our girls and our program. But we know we're going to have to play much, much better if we're even going to compete with New Bremen on Saturday."
Stober finished with 21 points, while Hughes scored 10 points and pulled down 16 rebounds. Sumner scored 17 points for Ada and Burkhart finished with 13.
St. Henry's Rileigh Baumer drives into the paint in Shawnee on Wednesday.
Leading 27-20 coming out of halftime, St. Henry's offense slowed down but the defense picked up the slack, holding LCC to just seven points. Jalynn Everman provided all the Redskins' scoring, hitting three treys to put the Redskins up by nine.
Everman picked up back-to-back fouls in the first two minutes of the fourth, but the St. Henry defense continued to shut down the Thunderbirds. LCC finally got back on the board with two free throws from Olivia Stolly with 5:31 left, but Leah Lefeld and Mya Ontrop got buckets and Lauren Beyke swished a three from the left wing to put the Redskins up 43-29 with 3:50 to play.
LCC scored four points the rest of the way as St. Henry closed it out.
"Our last game, we crashed the boards hard, and we were just trying to build on that," St. Henry coach Nate Uhlenhake said. "We crashed the boards on the offensive end, trying to outrebound them and get some second chance opportunities, and on the defensive end, trying to box out the first shot, limit them to one opportunity to shoot."
St. Henry's Jalynn Everman shoots a three over LCC's Katie Cox at Lappin Gymnasium on Wednesday.
Everman returned and hit another trey with 1:19 left, her sixth of the game. She finished with 18 points on 6-of-13 shooting and added four steals.
"She shot the ball well tonight, which is good to see," Uhlenhake said. "It's a good time to get hot."
The Redskins took control early on with strong deep shooting, hitting 5-of-11 behind the arc in the first half. In the first quarter it was Everman and Mya Ontrop with treys, and in the second Everman hit another and Lauren Beyke chipped in two of her own.
Beyke's second three put St. Henry up 23-10 with 3:50 left in the first half, forcing LCC to call timeout. The Thunderbirds responded with a 10-0 run, but Leah Lefeld got the Redskins back on the board with a pair of free throws and Rileigh Baumer banked in a jumper with 32.3 seconds left to send St. Henry into the break up seven.
"We got out to a little bit of a fast start, which is good for us, we haven't done that a lot this year," Uhlenhake said. "Pulled out to a lead, and then, let's say our defense wasn't the best there - they got a little bit of a run to get back into it. But we fought back and we ended up pulling away."
Ontrop added 13 for the Redskins, with Wendel finishing with 11. Stolly scored 16 for LCC.
