Ellet runs past Loudonville for nonconference girls basketball win
LOUDONVILLE — After three tight quarters, Akron Ellet opened the final quarter with an 8-0 run and never looked back in a 63-45 nonconference girls basketball win over Loudonville in “The Cage” Tuesday night.
Ellet (17-5), a Division I team, led just 41-37 entering the fourth quarter but got sparkling performances from sophomore Caitlyn Holmes (24 points) and senior Rachel Wenzel (20 points) to earn the triumph over Division III Loudonville (15-5).
“That’s a solid team win, a Division I team from the inner city, and it was a heck of a treat for our girls to get to play them,” said Loudonville coach Tyler Bates. “I’m honored they brought their team down here to play us. We have to decide what we’re going to do from here. Are we going to learn from it — because the goal is to learn from it — or are we going to crumble?
“I felt like in the second half, that wasn’t our best effort, and what concerns me now in our last two games, I’ve seen two or three halves that haven’t been our best effort. We’re not good enough to not play extremely hard all of the time.”
For Ellet coach Nick Harris, having two top-caliber players like Wenzel and Holmes is a luxury.
“Rachel Wenzel is going to play soccer at the University of Akron. She’s the all-time leading assist scorer in the state of Ohio for a career all-time,” Harris said. “She’s unbelievable. She’s a soccer player first, and she’ll tell you that too, but she’s been in the weight room with us every day. She is about the toughest, scrappiest girl I’ve had the pleasure to coach for over a decade.”
Wenzel also led the Orangemen with eight rebounds and a handful of steals. Holmes added four steals and five boards, also igniting Ellet’s fastbreak offense.
“Caitlyn is special. She’s one of the most talented players I’ve ever had the pleasure to coach, and what I tell everybody is she’s the most composed young person I’ve had,” Harris lauded. “She is competitive, which I love. I’d rather have a player I’ve got to dial down a little bit than ramp up. She had a face-guard for 32 minutes tonight, girls in her jersey, and you still saw a way for her to put her imprint on the game. So for a 15-year-old sophomore, I couldn’t be luckier.”
The Redbirds' Corri Vermilya also proved to be an unstoppable force at times, scoring 32 points to go with 10 rebounds and two steals.
Liberty Gerhart followed with four points, and Jena Guilliams and Sophia Spangler (three steals) scored three points each.
“Corri is unbelievable. I’ve coached her for a couple of years in AAU, the 3-on-3 that Tyler puts on,” Harris said. “She’s a load, she’s special.”
Bates said as much about his talented junior.
“Offensively, Corri just keeps you in the game. She’s that talented, and there were times tonight when she was the only girl looking at the basket for us,” Bates said. “It’s really tough to win when you only have one girl looking at the basket.”
Loudonville played a solid first half to trail only 24-21 at halftime. But the Redbirds uncharacteristically totaled 19 turnovers, many of which led to breakaway layups for Ellet.
“I thought in the first half we got good looks at the rim but as the game wore on I thought we started to shy away a little bit from making winning plays, and their guards were able to read our passes, and get some steals and get out into transition,” Bates said. “We just need to do a better job of valuing the basketball. We’re never going to beat a team like that if we let them get out into transition, and play in the open court because they’re more athletic than us.
“We have to take care of the ball and get a shot every time.”
This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Ellet runs past Loudonville in girls basketball
