Girls District Basketball: North Union advances; RV upset by Hartley
DELAWARE — Olentangy Berlin was turning into the Bermuda Triangle for Heart of Ohio basketball teams.
On Monday, Pleasant was knocked out of the tournament 49-33 by Fairbanks in a Division III girls basketball district semifinal at Berlin. The next night the homestanding Bears handled Marion Harding 65-41 in a Division I boys basketball sectional opener.
Wednesday night started with River Valley being upset by Bishop Hartley 46-42 in the first game of a Division II girls basketball district semifinal doubleheader at Berlin.
And for a half, it looked like North Union was going to be the next to succumb on that court, trailing Hamilton Township 21-13.
However, the Wildcats flipped the game in the second half and survived to tell the tale, beating the Rangers 47-33 to earn a spot in Saturday afternoon's D-II district championship game at Capital University against Bexley.
"At halftime, we talked about how we’ve always been a second-half team," North Union coach Bre Jackson said. "They’ve got to weather the storm and figure out taking care of the basketball and rebounding and looking to attack their zone. We didn’t do a great job in the first half of doing that, and we did a better job in the second half of getting the ball inside."
North Union (22-2) came into the game as the No. 2 seed in the district, while Hamilton Township (10-14) was the No. 11 seed. Nevertheless, the Rangers scored the game's first seven points and held on for a 9-5 lead after the first period. In the second quarter, they upped the lead to 21-13 by halftime.
"Taking care of the of the basketball," Jackson said of her primary message at halftime. "We had nine turnovers. We like to run-and-gun and a couple of those were trying to push. That was a game plan of ours to get them tired. We knew that they really couldn’t hang with us if we did push the ball. I don’t know if the bigger court threw some of that off because we would normally have those be layups."
To speed the Rangers up, Jackson tweaked their full-court press to provide more pressure and more trapping in the backcourt, and it worked. In the first 37 seconds of the third period, the Wildcats sliced it to 21-17.
With less than four minutes to go in the quarter, NU was within two points before really asserting itself in a sudden way.
Abbey Price made a layup with 2:37 left in the third to tie it at 23. She then gave her squad its first lead of the game by converting another layup with 2:14 left. Seven seconds later, they not only drew a charge but HT's bench was called for a technical foul, which Zoe Wedding hit both from the line. On the ensuing possession, she knocked down a 3-pointer to complete a 9-0 run in just 30 seconds.
Another Wedding 3-pointer from out top with five seconds left gave North Union a 35-25 lead entering the fourth quarter. They wouldn't be threatened again.
"Zoe hit that three for us and dove on the loose ball and made those free throws. Zoe was our spark player of the game," Jackson said. "We’ve got to figure out how to put those (nine) points together more in the game. We’ve got to figure out how to throw the first punch and keep punching. We oftentimes allow the other team to throw the first punch and figure out how it’s going to go."
Wedding finished with four 3-pointers and 14 points, while Price added 12 points for the game. The 22-point third period by the Wildcats was the difference maker as the two combined for 18 of those points. The Rangers mustered just four points in the third.
"We knew if we sped them up they would probably turn the ball over, which happened a few times. Those were good swings for us," Jackson said. "We really wanted to make them tired. When you’re tired, you make more mistakes. It’s going to come down to who makes the least amount of mistakes and who can string together the points in those runs."
Ziann Payne was the lone Ranger to reach double figures with 13 points.
Up next for the Wildcats is a date with No. 3 Bexley, who needed a 16-0 run to end the game for a 48-42 victory over No. 5 Bloom-Carroll. The district title game will be at 3:30 p.m.
"Bexley is going to do those same things. They’re going to rebound well and they are very patient offensively," Jackson said.
RV falls in tight semifinal
As for No. 4 seed River Valley (18-7), it was involved in a back-and-forth contest with No. 6 seed Bishop Hartley (10-14).
"That team’s schedule, I think they were the fourth toughest D-II schedule in the state," River Valley coach Tim Chiles said. "They only won nine or 10 games this year, but they were good. They played Africentric close; they played Mount Notre Dame in Cincinnati to a 3-point game a couple weeks ago. We knew it was going to take everything that we had."
It was tight from the jump with lead changes and ties and with RV leading 15-13 after the first quarter. In the second quarter, the Hawks fired off an 11-3 run in the first four minutes and took a 26-21 lead into halftime.
In the first 70 seconds of the second half, Hartley made two foul shots and produced a steal-and-score to take a 30-21 lead. The Vikings spent the rest of the period chipping away at the deficit, getting to within 34-31 entering the fourth quarter.
"We came out and made some mistakes early, adjusted and did what we need to do and gave ourselves a chance," Chiles said.
In the fourth period, there were two ties and four lead changes as the point differential was never greater than a one-possession game until the final seven seconds.
An Ava Roseberry free throw with 6:08 left in the game gave RV its first lead since early in the second quarter. Eva Moran made a reverse layup along the baseline for the Vikes, and Brooklyn Mosher nailed two free throws with 3:16 remaining to tie it at 39.
A Kiki McElrath 3-pointer from the top of the key put Hartley up 42-39 with 2:43 left, and it proved to be the game winner. Mosher scored in transition to cut the game to a point with 1:32 left, and Roseberry made a foul shot to again come within a point at 43-42 with 26 seconds left.
McElrath knocked in a foul shot, and Hartley forced a turnover at midcourt with 20 seconds left. RV put Aniyah Thorne at the foul line with 18 seconds to go, and she made one to make it 45-42. However, she missed the second attempt, and the McElrath got the rebound. RV eventually fouled Thorne again, and she made one with seven seconds left to put it away.
Hartley will now play No. 1 seed Granville, a 53-21 winner over No. 9 Heath, Saturday at 1 p.m. at Capital for the district championship.
"I think they have a good chance in their next game, so we’ll see what happens," Chiles said.
As for RV, the season ends with a Mid Ohio Athletic Conference championship and a sectional crown.
"Brooklyn has played all four years, but those other girls have bought time and they bought in," Chiles said of his senior class. "They did what we asked them to do, and I’m extremely proud of what they did this year and what they accomplished by winning the league."
McElrath led all scorers with 20 points, while Thorne and Xaria Williams both had eight points for the Hawks who shot 37 percent on 2-pointers, 3 of 17 on 3-pointers and 60 percent on foul shots. For RV, Mosher had 18 points and Lexie Hecker 12.
River Valley shot 24 percent on 2-pointers, 28 percent on 3-pointers and 57 percent on free throws. They lost Halle Snyder to a serious knee injury late in the season and lost Makyha Rodgers to a knee injury during the game and she could not continue. Eden Osborne and Morgan Nemeth also left with injuries for RV but returned to play it out.
"I thought our girls did an extremely good job," Chiles said. "(Hartley) made free throws down the stretch so give them credit for that. We made baskets to keep ourselves in the game and made some plays. We had injuries and fouls, and we were down to six (players) at the end and that’s difficult. Some of them didn’t come off the floor the entire game.
"We told them we know it hurts losing that last one, but one team is smiling afterward. That wasn’t us this year."
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This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Girls District Basketball: North Union advances; RV upset by Hartley
