Here's how Kings girls basketball got past Lakota East for regional championship berth

WEST CHESTER, Ohio − Kings girls basketball coach Steve Green is also a math teacher at Princeton Middle School. So he has a pretty good understanding about the team he’ll face with a spot in the OHSAA State Final Four on the line.

Green and the Knights will play Princeton in the Division I regional final Saturday night at Lakota West High School after Kings held off Lakota East Wednesday, 49-47.

Kings, a No. 7 seed entering the tournament, has now beaten three consecutive higher-seeded teams, including two ranked in the final Associated Press state poll.

“These seniors I’ve got just don’t want to lose,” Green said. “They are ultimate competitors. All my seniors are awesome and we just battled for 32 minutes and we were lucky enough to make one more play.”

Three keys to Kings’ win

• Kings was able to survive a slow start over the first three minutes, which saw Lakota East open up a 10-2 lead. The Knights responded swiftly, answering with an 8-0 run anchored by three-pointers from Madi Barnett and Sami Drew.

“We were getting decent shots on offense, so that’s why I didn’t call the timeout there,” Green said. “We were probably one possession away from a timeout, but we hit a three and I thought we were good. I don’t really panic with my three seniors out there too much.”

In fact, Kings shot 51.2% from the field in the first half and Lakota East shot 48.1%. The Knights took their first lead of the game with 2:52 left in the first quarter on another triple from Drew.

There were five lead changes in the first half in the back-and-forth affair with each team shooting lights out. Barnett hit an off-balanced runner at the second-quarter buzzer to give Kings a 35-33 advantage at the intermission.

• As fast as the start was for Kings, the hot shooting cooled off immediately out of the locker room. Kings took a 37-35 lead with 6:27 left in the third quarter on a bucket from Riley Wells (10 points) and didn’t score again for the remainder of the stanza. Lakota East took advantage, taking a 41-37 lead into the fourth quarter after a triple from Payton Woody.

“Making shots, missing shots, we talk about it in practice all the time. You can’t control that. Some days you hit, some days you don’t,” Green said. “With that mentality, our girls weather storms like that. To be honest, when you play in front of a crowd like that, it gets a little tight.”

• In the first half, Lakota East standout senior Madison French had 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting. In the second half, Kings was able to hold the first-team all-district selection to just one field goal.

“Elise Marchal played phenomenal 1-on-1 defense,” Green said. “We talked about gapping her (French). She is just tough because she can shoot the three, she can post, she can drive and we just really tried to get as much as we can without leaving their other shooters open.”

When French’s runner in the lane gave Lakota East a 47-46 lead with 1:43 remaining, the Knights answered just 11 seconds later with a three-pointer from Barnett

Both teams had opportunities over the final 100 seconds, but no points were scored. Kings was 3-of-11 from the free-throw line in the second half and Lakota East went 3-of-7. After a missed free throw in the waning seconds, Lakota East had one final chance, but Brooke Asher’s corner three-pointer was just off the mark and the Kings’ celebration was on with a mob near halfcourt.

Top performers

Madi Barnett: One of four seniors on the roster, Barnett had a team-high 13 points and connected three times from the perimeter. Her triple with 1:32 left was the final score from either team and proved to be the game-winner. She also grabbed 5 rebounds.

Sami Drew: The junior scored all 10 of her points in the first half, finishing 3-of-3 from the field, including a pair from downtown. Drew also pulled down 4 boards and had 4 assists.

Kassie Ingram: The junior, who had 28 points in Kings’ district final win over Centerville, had 11 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals.

Riley Wells: The 6-foot-3 senior forward grabbed a game-high 8 rebounds, including three on the offensive end. She was one of four Knights to score in double figures, finishing with 10.

Abby Rawlings: The senior point guard was the key facilitator for the Knights’ offense and committed just one turnover. She hit a three-pointer in the first half and didn’t score again until she banked a runner off the glass to give Kings a 46-45 lead with 2:31 remaining in regulation.

Senior sendoff

Lakota East’s seniors were Madison French, Mary Kenrich, Jaila Robinson, Riley Wood, Payton Woody and Savannah Smith.

French, a Miami (Ohio) commit, eclipsed 1,000 career points with a first-quarter bucket.

“She (French) just continued to improve her game,” Lakota East head coach Dan Wallace said. “She’s gonna go to Miami and continue to improve her game. She ate right, she worked out, she got physically stronger. She’s done all those little things that make great players. She did it right.”

Smith had 8 points and opened up the game with the hot hand, hitting from the top of the key on back-to-back possessions. She finished with 8 points and 3 rebounds.

Woody finished with 7 points and 2 rebounds while Wood tallied 5 points.

Lakota East went 11-36 in the two years prior to Wallace’s arrival in 2018. The Thunderhawks have now posted a winning record in three of the last four seasons (11-11 in 2021) and this year’s squad was the first to win a district championship since 2011.

“I’m so proud of this group of kids. I think every Lakota East record got shattered this year,” Wallace said. “These girls have flipped this program from a struggle to one of the tops in the state in the last four years. I couldn’t be more proud of these kids. I just loved coaching them every single day and that’s when you know you’re doing something right with the kids.”

What’s next?

Kings (22-5), winners of 11 straight games, will play Princeton Saturday at Lakota West for a spot in the state Final Four.

From his years in the classroom, Green knows how talented and well-coached the Vikings are.

“Some of them I’ve known since the seventh grade,” he said. “(Princeton head coach) Dee (Davis) is fantastic. Me and her talk all year and a chance to go against them, it’s gonna be a tough challenge because they’re so talented. We’re gonna battle and compete, dig and grind and do everything we can.”

Cincinnati Country Day girls basketball falls in regional semifinals

In Division III regional action, Cincinnati Country Day saw its bid for back-to-back regional championships and state Final Four berths come to an end after a 49-40 loss to Columbus Africentric at Springfield High School.

Cincinnati Country Day (21-6) sprinted to an 8-0 lead in the first 2:36 but, powered by eight points from Natiah Nelson the rest of the first quarter, Africentric got to within 11-10 after one.

The Nubians never trailed after Taelynn Clayborn’s layup gave them a 14-13 lead with 6:58 left in the half. Country Day trailed 23-22 at halftime but never got closer than three points after halfway through the third quarter.

Megan Zimmerman’s 16 points led a balanced effort for Country Day. Grace Barnes added 11 points and Elizabeth Zimmerman had 10.

Africentric coach Janicia Anderson said Barnes and Megan Zimmerman, the Nighthawks’ two first-team all-Southwest District honorees, were the focal point of the defensive plan.

“We let our defense dictate our offense, and that’s how we get our flow offensively, from our aggressiveness and willingness to be the best we can be on defense,” Anderson said. “We knew (Zimmerman) and (Barnes) were going to be aggressive, but we slowed their momentum.”

Dave Purpura of The Columbus Dispatch contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: 'They are ultimate competitors.' Kings advances to DI regional final