D-IV Sidney Sectional Going to Plan
By Tim Langevin
The girls D-IV sectional tournament trail has been smooth sledding. Even keel. No upsets. No close encounters. About as exciting as waiting for Elmer’s glue to stick. The top four seeds – Fort Loramie, Triad, Jackson Center, and Houston – advanced to the finals this Saturday at Sidney High School.
Top seed Fort Loramie plays Houston for a third time at Noon and Jackson Center and Triad collide in a battle of “mighty mites” at 1:30 PM. Here’s how it all unfolded….
Good news and bad news for the Houston Lady Cats.
The good news, they defeated a stubborn Riverside squad 53-44 Tuesday night and advance to the finals for the third straight year.
“We hoped to get to this point,” Houston coach Greg Ward said. “We don’t quite have the firepower of last year, but our girls have stepped up. We got the key stops when we needed, down the stretch.”
The bad news, Houston faces Fort Loramie, a team that beat them down twice during the regular season, 56-29 in December and 78-38 earlier this month.
Asked about game plan against Loramie, Ward smiled and said, “Score more points.” He added on a more serious note, “The key is handling their pressure. They are so long. You think you can get a pass by them, but then they steal it and off they go. We have to withstand their pressure. The best way is to attack the basket before the trap comes.”
This game was in doubt for three quarters when Riverside trimmed the lead 33-32 on an Erica Snapp three.
However, Houston closed out the fourth quarter with a 20-12 burst to secure the win. The Lady Wildcats converted 8-of-11 foul shots down the stretch.
Kristi Elliott led the surge with seven points, including a triple. Bethany Reister tallied six points and Allison Roeth added five, including her second three of the game.
Elliott led all scorers with 19 points. Reister finished with 11 and Roeth added eight.
Senior standout Emily Ferguson scored 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds to complement Elliott.
Ward said about Ferguson, “We are going to miss her points and rebounds. But what we will miss the most is her presence on the floor. What she brings to this team is invaluable.”
Snapp had 14 points to pace the Lady Pirates and Whitney Jenkins added 13.
Houston (12-10) survives to play another day and Riverside concludes its season at 7-13.
In the second game, Fort Loramie blasted Troy Christian 92-16. The Lady Redskins led 35-2 after one, 60-3 at the break, and 78-10 after three quarters.
Six players landed in double figures and 12 players scored. Clair Ruhenkamp led the assault with 14 points. Janel Olberding followed with 13 points. Tori Maurer added 12, Kristen Zumburger 11, and Brooke Turner and Reggi Brandewie each tallied 10.
Loramie improves to 17-5 on the season.
Enough said!
Triad sprinted out of the blocks, scoring in transition and bombing from the outside to take a 15-5 first quarter lead and cruised the rest of the way, posting a 49-36 win over Springfield Catholic Central Wednesday evening.
And in the process, Kelsey Funderburgh scored her 1,000th point in the first quarter on a long-range three. More impressive, the 5′ 6″ guard is only a junior.
Funderburgh said, “It’s a nice achievement, but I’m just glad we won. We came out and played hard.” Talk about humble.
Fifth-year coach Jason Malone said, “I am thrilled for Kelsey. She is a dynamic player. She can score so many ways-drive to the basket, hit perimeter shots, and make free throws. She is a treat. She is a luxury to have.”
Funderburgh finished the night with 19 points, including 3-of-5 from three-point-land. Teammate Dayna Ober added 10.
The Lady Cards improve to 18-4.
Malone said, “Compared to last year’s team, I think this team is faster, quicker, more athletic. We can score in transition or in the half-court. We cause a lot of matchup problems.”
The nightcap was a war between Jackson Center and Lehman for about 21 minutes with the Lady Cavaliers leading 25-18. Then “POOF”. Lehman ran out of ammo and Jackson Center assembled a dominant 20-4 run, holding the Cavs scoreless in the final stanza, for the 38-29 victory.
Jackson coach Gregg Gooding said, “I expected a war. When you look at the teams we’ve both played, the scores were pretty even. So I knew this would be a tough game.”
Talk about lock-down defense. Lehman was held scoreless the final 8:26 of the game, shooting 0-of-5 from the field with no free throw attempts and eight turnovers.
Both teams battled nerves and cold shooting in the first quarter. Brooke Richard broke the ice for Jackson with a three at the 5:07 mark.
Jessica Thobe struck back with a stickback about a minute later. She finished the game with eight points.
Lehman claimed the lead 4-3 on a Christi Freytag drive down the lane. Then the Cavs reeled off a mini 6-2 run to close out the quarter with a 10-5 advantage.
Lindsay Spearman bombed a three and followed it up with a 3-point-play on a nifty drive down the lane. She ended the game with eight points, 10 below her season average.
Gooding said, “The difference was in the first half we played at their pace. We didn’t pressure the way we have been and we were complacent in our half-court defense. And they were able to run some clock. Plus, we missed a lot of wide open shots.”
The second quarter was all Taylor Cummons. She outscored Lehman 9-6 to draw the Tigers within two, 16-14, at the break. The 5′ 5″ dynamo penetrated the lane with ease, drawing the fouls, and converting 5-of-5 free throws. her vicious cross-over dribble was unstoppable. The senior standout (1,000 plus career points) finished the contest with 16 points, including 8-of-8 from the charity stripe. She also added eight rebounds.
“Taylor was just phenomenal,” said Gooding. “She had a great game and made some big shots and did a great job defending Freytag.”
Dakota Sowders triggered the 20-4 run with back-to-back threes. She finished with eight points. From that point on, Gooding’s four-guard offense was electrifying. Good luck trying to press or trap these girls.
Gooding stated, “Dakota’s threes were huge for us. I thought that was a big key. When they went up seven, I called a timeout. And from that point on, we held them to four points.”
Brooke Richard scored eight points for Jackson, including five in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie May managed just two points, but was bottled up most of the night by Lehman’s Bigs. But she did a nice job of kicking the ball back out to her guards.
Jackson Center outrebounded Lehman 21-15 and committed eight turnovers to Lehman’s 14.
The Lady Cavaliers conclude their season 12-10. Jackson Center keeps rolling with a 15-7 mark.
And so, the first two rounds of the Sidney Sectionals are in the book. And Saturday, the final chapter will be scripted.
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