Freshman Hazel Francis races for the rim and two of her team-high 16 points Monday in Russia’s 50-35 win over Covington. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Russia and Fort Loramie both advanced Monday in Division IV district semi-final play with convincing wins over Covington, and Lehman Catholic. That is…convincing!
Sidney, OH – The Shelby County League left little doubt Monday about girls’ head-to-head matches in the basketball with the Three Rivers Conference.
In the first of two district semi-final games at Sidney High School Russia (14-10) knocked out Covington (19-6), 50-35, in a game where the Raiders’ Hazel Francis, a 5’9″ freshman scored 16 points…and senior post player Roni Poling collected what must have seemed like a hundred rebounds., while finishing with 12 points.
Close for most of the first quarter, Russia drew away to a double digit lead by halftime against a Covington team that never really settled into an offense…and maintained a double-digit lead throughout the second half to advance to the weekend’s district final, in Troy.
Poling, one of the SCL’s premier players in the paint, was simply dominating on the offensive and defensive boards, allowing Covington but one shot on the majority of their possessions, while the Raiders benefited from an almost 2-1 advantage on the offensive boards, repeatedly getting second and third opportunities on missed shots around the rim.
One of the best players in Shelby County, Russia’s Roni Poling scores against Covington during Monday action in Sidney.
Francis, who rapidly ascended as one of the league’s best young players during the second half of the regular season, was the beneficiary of wide-open looks at the rim as a result of Russia’s ability to find her without a defensive escort.
Russia will now play the winner of Wednesday’s matchup between Botkins and Jackson Center, this weekend, at Troy High School.
In the second semi-final, #1-ranked Fort Loramie (23-2) showed why playing them is like swimming with sharks while having a bloody knee. The Redskins used their pressure defense to create 32 turnovers and deflections, scored repeatedly off those Lehman miscues, and benefited from a running clock for the entire second half, which took a total of 24 minutes to play.
The Redskins led at the end of the first quarter, 24-4…led at the end of the first half, 38-8…and stretched that lead to a 61-12 conclusion to hand Lehman its 16th loss of the season against 7 wins. And in three sectional tourney contests now, against Twin Valley South, Miami Valley, and Lehman, the Redskins have outscored their opponents by a margin of 207 to 35.
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“I challenge my starters to set the tone early,” said Loramie coach Carla Siegel. “And in the first quarter the starters and the first two or three girls off the bench did a great job of harassing Lehman and just frustrating [their offense]. They never got into a flow, and that’s a nice team, by the way. They have some really good players.”
Really good players, like Mara O’Leary, who at 6’0″, and athletic, should be an impact player on most area Division IV teams. But against Loramie, on Monday, the Redskins simply took away all her support. O’Leary led the Cavaliers with 6 points.
Turnovers and deflections…Loramie used 32 such miscues to beat Lehman by 49 points in Monday’s district semi-final.
This, by the way, may be as good as some past Loramie teams, or it might not be as good as some of the three previous state title teams. It’s always hard to tell, exactly, given the frantic pace with which they play defense, and their focus on creating enough havoc on opposing teams that they don’t have to rely on playing in the half court. 32 turnovers creates a lot of uncontested layups and high percentage shots, even if you only convert 50% of them. But 50% of 32 would have amounted to about 32 points Monday, and few teams can withstand that many free points from transition baskets.
Which brings up the obvious question…can anyone in Division IV beat Fort Loramie when they’re creating that many turnovers?
“I have no comment,” smiled Siegel, who obviously enjoys at least considering such an advantage.
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But, in fact, few teams in the past have had the backcourt skill and depth to play with Loramie for 32 minutes when they’re in that sharks-feasting-on-blood attitude.
“I think our defensive pressure was the difference in the game,” she added. “I like the depth of this team, and I like the way they all cheer and play for each other.”
Loramie’s Summer Hoying rips the ball away from Lehman’s Melanie Karn.
While outscoring teams 207-35, there’s obviously been no tournament stress on Loramie, that steel-sharpens-steel competitive cliche’, to which Siegel adheres.
At the same time she draws upon her team’s strength of schedule during the regular season to offset the lack of competition from early round sectional games.
“These aren’t my favorite games,” she admits. “But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with them. I like X’s and O’s. I like strategy. But I thought tonight’s first quarter was fun because our girls did exactly what we’d worked on the last few days of practice.
“We all know that tougher games are coming down the pike. And just like years before, our girls will be ready because we’ll challenge them in practice with different things that they need to improve. We had some sloppy play tonight – things that I didn’t like. We saw some zone tonight, but we’ve seen zone early in the year, we adjusted to it, and then teams went back to playing man against us. Anytime you score a lot of points early in the game teams are going to throw different defenses at you, just to get you off kilter.”
Loramie’s Avery Brandewie reaches for two of her 10 points in Monday’s district tourney win over Lehman Catholic.
And while she chooses to not show her hand over 32 turnovers and the overwhelming advantage it provides, at the same time you cannot mistake that denying someone half their offensive possessions in a game is exactly the inside straight she shoots for every time they take the court.
“It’s the deflections we shoot for, like what Skylar Albers did tonight,” she smiles. “Deflections are huge for us because the ball is out in the open where we can recover and score, and it eliminates us reaching and grabbing and piling up fouls. When we do that it takes away everything we’re trying to get. That’s what we shoot for. Stop reaching, let the other team pass the ball and get the deflections. That’s what we want.”
Seems simple enough, but it’s a commitment that few teams can discipline themselves to achieve. Playing defense for Carla Siegel is tough. But it’s how she plays, and teams can feel the stress, the pressure, and that sense of lost possession and time when they play Loramie.
Like Russia, the Redskins will play next on Saturday against Tuesday’s winner of the Fayetteville-Perry vs. Middletown Christian game, teams that probably don’t know that much about Loramie…and yet know everything you need to know. Former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson used to call it “forty minutes of hell”.
That’s how it feels to play Loramie.
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