COLUMBUS, Ohio—It’s not often in a talent laden state like Ohio that just one team returns to the state tournament to defend its crown.  In reality, that one team isn’t actually defending their own title as Gilmour Academy has jumped up in classifications from a year ago.  In all 16 teams have made their way to Columbus and the campus of Ohio State University to compete for the this season’s ultimate in Buckeye State Bragging Rights.

Thursday’s four game schedule kicked things off with the semifinals in Division III and Division IV while Friday’s line-up will feature the folks from Divisions I and II.  Saturday is championship day once again with the first contest set to tip at 10:45 in the morning and the final teams going at it at 8:30 that evening.

Throughout the tournament we’ll offer up some images and statistical synopsis of each game as well as some post tournament evaluations.  Today we look at the four semifinal matchups in Division III and IV and Friday night we’ll post the same from all the action in D I and II.  Friday’s action tips at 1p.m. with Division II up first.

Division III

The score of the Versailles – Elyria Catholic D-III semifinal is somewhat misleading.  While the final margin stood at 13 for Versailles, the contest was much more competitive than the 63 – 47 score indicates.  The Tigers didn’t have that one “big” quarter but were able to stretch their lead over the course of the game after trailing by one after the first period of play.  Entering the final quarter the Panthers trailed by 10 and were still within striking distance but lost their footing on the defensive end giving up 23 points in the final eight minutes of play.

Versailles dominated the boards 39 – 24 including 14 on the offensive glass.  The game was clean in terms of ballhandling as Elyria Catholic turned it over just 10 times in the loss while Versailles only gave it up 6 times in claiming the win.  The Tigers shot 21 for 47 (44.7%) while the Panthers were 17 of 42 (40.5%) in a losing effort.

Senior guard Kami McEldowney paced the scoring for Versailles finishing with 17 points while connecting on 7 of 12 from the floor.  Danielle Winner, a senior forward, added a double – double of 14 points and 10 rebounds while sophomore Lindsey Winner chipped in 13 and 8 of her own.  Junior guard Faith Williams led EC with 18 while sophomore post Ally Winnen contributed a double – double of 13 points and 10 rebounds to close her season.  Versailles enters Saturday’s final with a season mark of 28 and 1 while Elyria Catholic puts the wraps on a 22 – 6 record.

Ottawa-Glandorf came out aggressively in their semifinal game with Africentric and exploited some less than stellar transition defense to hold a 13 – 11 edge after one period.  Not surprisingly, the Lady Nubians plugged the hole in their defense and ultimately took a 23 – 21 lead at the break.  They added 11 more to the margin across the second half but had to play it all the way out as the Titans weren’t going quietly into the night. In the end Africentric moved into Saturday’s D-III final by way of a 50 – 37 win.

While the first D-III semifinal between Versailles and Elyria Catholic was lacking in turnovers on both sides of the ball, the second game was a bit more sloppy.  Both Africentric and Ottawa-Glandorf turned the ball over 20 times over the course of the game.  The Lady Nubians gained some ground back on the glass holding a 40 – 30 rebounding edge for the game.  While Africentric didn’t “light it up” they did come home 20 of 50 from the floor while the Lady Titans struggled to find the range making just 11 of 45.

Junior Jordan Horston had some impressive moments on her way to an 18 point effort in the win.  She was 9 of 15 shooting but suffered some issues with leg cramps on several occasions in the second half to slow her down the stretch.  Sophomore Alexia Smith provided 13 more while classmate Nyam Thornton contributed 10 of her own to the winning cause.  Junior guard Erin Kaufman was the only player in double figures for Ottawa-Glandorf finishing with 14 points in 26 minutes of play.  Africentric will take their 26 – 3 record into the championship game Saturday while the Lady Titans have to call it a season at 25 – 3.

Division IV

The coaching adage that “defense wins championships” must be something Ottoville embraced a little tighter entering Thursday’s semifinal match-up with Buckeye Central.  Actually, across the season they’ve held opponents under the 40 point mark in 20 of 28 games and the Buckettes didn’t fare much better against them on the scoreboard in Columbus.  When all was said and done the Lady Green had limited Buckeye Central to just 25 points in a 44 – 25 win to advance to Saturday’s OHSAA Division IV championship game.

Ottoville outscored Buckeye Central in all four quarters while not allowing them to reach double digits in any one period.  They also won the battle on the boards by 10 and forced 10 more turnovers leading to 20 points of their own.  Those turnovers also contributed to a 17 shot attempt advantage over the course of the game.

Senior forward Bridget Landin led the way with a double – double of 21 points and 11 rebounds that included a 9 of 15 slate from the floor.  Buckeye Central got 15 from senior guard Jenna Karl on 6 of 11 shooting in the loss.  Ottoville moves on hoping to avenge an earlier season loss to Minster as the two meet Saturday for all the marbles.  The Lady Green take a 27 – 2 record into their final game Saturday while Buckeye Central closes the book on the 2017 – 18 season at 26 – 2.

Minster followed suit with Ottoville utilizing some solid defense to set up Saturday’s championship game in Division IV.  Waterford failed to hit double figures in any quarter of play as well and had just one player shoot over 40 percent from the floor for the game.  Coming into Thursday’s semifinal Minster had held opponents under 30 points on 11 different occasions and Waterford didn’t cross that barrier until just 1:41 remained in the game.

Minster’s defense held Waterford to 9 of 33 (27.3%) shooting as a team including 2 for 9 from deep.  In the win the Wildcats connected on 17 of their own 38 field goal attempts for 44.7 percent on the day.  Minster dominated the boards 32 – 17 while both teams turned the ball over 18 times apiece before the final horn.

Minster got 13 points and five boards from junior forward Courtney Prenger.  Senior teammate Taylor Kogge chipped in 10 of her own while impressive freshman point guard Ivy Wolf added 8 more to go with her five assists.  Senior Alli Kern paced Waterford finishing with 18 points while pulling 8 rebounds.  Kern was 4 of 11 from the floor including 2 for 5 from three.  Minster moves into the final with a 25 – 3 record while Waterford wraps up their campaign at 26 – 2.