COLUMBUS, Ohio—Day two of the 2014 Ohio State Tournament featured four semifinal battles in the Division I and III categories. Competition Thursday saw the D-II and D-IV championship cards set for Saturday. West Holmes and Archbishop Alter will take their undefeated records into the Division II finals while Bishop Rosecrans and Reedsville Eastern will do battle for honors in Division IV. Friday saw Smithville and Africentric start the day off in the first D-III semifinal followed by Proctorville Fairland and Versailles. The second session saw Cincinnati Princeton and Toledo Notre Dame in the first D-I semi with North Canton Hoover and Dublin Coffman wrapping up the day’s action.
Championship day will begin Saturday at 10:45 a.m. with Alter and West Holmes in D-II. At 2 p.m. Reedsville Eastern and Bishop Rosecrans will tip for the D-IV crown. Division III takes the stage at 5:15 with Africentric and Versailles going head to head followed at 8:30 by Princeton and North Canton Hoover for all the marbles in D-I.
Division III Semifinals
Columbus Africentric 44 Smithville 22
Smithville and Africentric are not strangers to state tournament competition but you wouldn’t have known it the way both teams opened up the first Division III semifinal game. Neither team could find success leading to an extraordinarily low scoring first half. The majority of the first 16 minutes saw Africentric struggling to shoot the ball and only with several late lay ups did they get their shooting percentage up to a whopping 30 percent. Smithville was lucky to simply get a shot up turning the ball over 13 times while connecting on just five of 17 attempts. After posting nine points in the first they could manage just two in the second period. The frosty first half saw the Lady Nubians take a 17 – 11 lead into the locker room at the break.
The third period didn’t do much more to advance the cause of offensive basketball with both teams adding just seven more points to their total and Africentric taking a 24 – 18 advantage into the final period. Several times in the third and early in the fourth Smithville chose to sit back in a zone but Africentric wasn’t biting and appeared more than content to hold the ball. The ultimate result across the final eight minutes was a 20 – 4 run by the Lady Nubians as they advance to Saturday’s championship game. Smithville absorbed just their third loss of the season finishing with a 26 and 3 mark for the year.
Senior guard Ayrielle Stith led Africentric with 11 and was the only player on either side to reach double figures. Classmates Alexa Hart and Darianne Seward added eight apiece. For Smithville, 5-6 senior Olivia Besancon had nine but struggled from the floor going just 3 of 12 for the game. Fellow senior Natalie Indermuhle contributed eight more but the remainder of the team could only come up with five additional points. Africentric held Smithville to 22.5 percent shooting for the game and forced 22 turnovers to punch their ticket to the D-III championship tilt.
Proctorville Fairland 67 Versailles 60
Out of the gate it looked like Proctorville Fairland was going to run away from Versailles opening up a quick 12 – 2 lead. In their sixth trip to Columbus, the Tigers settled down and responded with an 8 – 2 run of their own to finish the opening period trailing just 14 – 10. By the middle of the second period they had overtaken Fairland and established a five point margin themselves but the Dragons regained their footing and took a brief one point lead before junior Lauren Bruns hit to give Versailles a 26 – 25 edge at halftime. Both teams turned the ball over 11 times in the first two periods and Versailles led the way on the boards 21 – 13, including 11 on the offensive end of the floor.
Just two and a half minutes into the third, Versailles had extended the lead to seven and appeared to have momentum. That was short lived as some sharp outside shooting led Fairland back to a one point lead with 3:20 to go. The Tigers responded in kind and finished the period on a 6 -1 run to hold a 45 – 41 margin entering the fourth. Versailles continued the assault extending their lead to 12 with 3:01 remaining but the Dragons weren’t about to concede just yet. Multiple turnovers and trips to the line closed the gap to only six with 41 seconds remaining but Fairland couldn’t get closer and fell in the end by a 67 – 60 final score.
The inside production of forwards Christa Puthoff and Katie Heckman was something Fairland had no answer for despite having 6-4 Michigan signee Terra Stapleton in the post. Puthoff, a 6-2 junior, finished 7 of 10 from the floor and Heckman, a senior, went 5 for 9 to produce a combined 28 points on the interior. Wiry junior wing/forward Lauren Bruns added 10 more for Versailles. Stapleton came out of the gate strong but struggled to finish going just 2 for 11 from the floor. Junior Caitlin Stone had 15 and sophomore Taylor Perry chipped in 13 more in the loss. Versailles dominated the glass with a 43 -31 margin but turned the ball over 23 times to just 18 for the Dragons.
Division I Semifinals
Cincinnati Princeton 60 Toledo Notre Dame 52
If you’re looking for the very definition of great high school basketball you should reference the Princeton – Notre Dame D-I semifinal. Out of the gate it looked like new standards were going to be set and it was no surprise that high profile Kelsey Mitchell and Tierra Floyd led their teams respectively. Princeton shot 9 of 15 in the first quarter to take a 21 – 19 lead over Notre Dame who “only” shot 7 for 14 in the period. The Eagles capitalized on several Princeton turnovers in the second and Tierra Floyd lit things up from deep to forge ahead…briefly. Mitchell, who had 9 of her own in the quarter, hit a three with 31 seconds to tie things up at 33 all for the half…and allow the crowd to catch their breath.
Notre Dame shot a blistering 50 percent making 12 of 24 shots including 5 for 11 behind the arch. Floyd was 5 of 9 and 3 for 6 from three point land. Princeton finished the half making 13 of their 27 attempts for 48 percent. Mitchell was 6 for 10 for 16 points and added 4 assists to the cause.
Things cooled off in the third with Princeton grabbing a 45 – 38 lead holding the Eagles to just five points over the quarter while posting 12 of their own. That eight point lead came and went throughout the final period with Notre Dame closing to just four on three different occasions but never finding a way to cut it to a one possession game. NDA junior forward Kaayla Mcintyre got six of her 16 over a short run but Princeton responded each time. Floyd’s three with 27 seconds left cut it to five but Princeton converted on the ensuing foul procession to make the final 60 – 52.
Mitchell wound up with 23 on the night and added six assists and four boards as well. Fellow senior Carlie Pogue had 18 of her own converting 8 of her 16 shots from the floor. Floyd’s 21 led the way for Notre Dame but cooled to 2 for 10 shooting in the second half. Mcintyre’s 16 came on a 6 for 9 effort around the rim.
Both teams ended up shooting 42 percent from the floor for the game. Ironically, both teams also finished 6 for 17 from three point range. The Tigers won the battle on the boards outrebounding Notre Dame by 11. A testament to the quality of play was a combined total of just 11 turnovers between the two teams. Princeton finished with five while Notre Dame had only six in 32 minutes of play. Unfortunately for the Eagles this was their third consecutive semifinal loss in state tournament competition. On the bright side, with just two seniors on the roster and only one in the starting lineup, a fourth opportunity may be just a year away. Princeton moves into tomorrow’s Division I championship game.
North Canton Hoover 61 Dublin Coffman 44
Hoover got their first trip back to Columbus since 2002 off on the right foot with an fast start in the first quarter taking a 19 – 9 lead on Dublin Coffman. The Shamrocks got just six field goal attempts in the period and coughed up the ball eight times. Senior forward Kaylee Stroemple came out strong for the Lady Vikings posting eight points on 4 of 5 shooting. The second period saw Coffman settle down to a degree but still surrender four more points to the lead entering the half down 32 – 18. Stroemple continued her onslaught with eight more points totaling 16 in the first two periods while connecting on 8 of 11 attempts from the floor. Senior guard Kamerine Taylor had nine for Coffman but also turned the ball over 5 of the 13 times Coffman gave it away in the first 16 minutes.
A determined Shamrock team took the floor in the third and immediately began letting the folks from Hoover know they weren’t done yet. With 1:31 to go in the period they had whittled the lead to just seven and seemed to be poised to make a run. Following a Lady Viking timeout however, Hoover ran off five straight to finish the quarter with the lead back to 12 at 45 – 33. A positive for Coffman was that they did outscore NCH in the third 15 – 13. The final period belonged to Hoover as they kept the margin in double digits and extended it to as much as 19 before mass substitutions on both sides at the 1:45 mark. The Shamrocks got one more layup to make the final score 61 – 44 setting up the Hoover – Princeton D-I final Saturday evening.
Stroemple only had two in the second half to finish with 18 on 9 of 12 shooting. Fellow senior Julie Worley added 16 and classmate Marquia Turner had 14 more in the win. Taylor paced Coffman with 17 resulting largely from her 5 for 8 effort from downtown. Sophomore Christine Szabo had 11 more while 6-1 junior post Sade Olatoye grabbed eight boards while battling foul trouble.
From the field Hoover shot 23 of 50 for 46 percent and connected on 13 of their 14 free throws. Coffman recovered from their miserable first half to shoot 40.5 percent for the game and knocked down 7 of 17 threes in the process. The Lady Vikings dominated the boards and forced the Shamrocks into 20 turnovers which were converted into 18 Hoover points.
