Scrambles for the ball like this one with Anna’s Makenzie Mumaw in the middle of it helped the Rockets to the regional finals. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
Anna, under new coach Rusty Allen, had to play great defense to slip past a tall Newark Catholic team. Minster overwhelmed Arcanum with its full-court pressure.
Springfield, OH – If height had been the determining factor, Anna’s girls basketball season would have ended Wednesday night in the Division VI region semifinals.
And everyone would have understood why.
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Newark Catholic walked into Springfield High School with the height and long arms of a college team. The Green Wave starters stood 6-2, 6-1, 6-1, 6-0, 5-10. Anna 6-3 sophomore Adyson Bales and 5-10 senior Makenna Pettus were the only Rockets who could look their opponent in the eyes.
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But the Rockets didn’t care. They stared the Green Wave down with a Rockets’ green glare and balled with a “we got this” attitude.
Anna played relentless defense for 90 feet, was unintimidated by the size, and turned the game into the kind of low-scoring, scrappy fight that was required for them to win. Nothing was easy about it, but the Rockets made enough stops and enough shots in the fourth quarter to advance with a 34-31 victory.
“We felt defensively we could keep ourselves in the game because we knew we weren’t going to score a lot of points against them just because of their length,” first-year Anna coach Rusty Allen said.
The Rockets will play Minster at 2 p.m. on Saturday in the region final at Springfield. Minster dominated Arcanum with defense for a 54-24 victory. The game will match Allen against old friend and Minster coach Mike Wiss. The two were American Legion baseball teammates in high school in St. Marys.
Minster played zone in its tournament win over Marion Local but employed the same style of full-court defense against Arcanum that Anna used against Newark. And while Allen knew to expect zone against Newark, he won’t know for sure what to expect from Minster. Wiss’s team has played multiple styles this season.
Makenzie Mumaw picks on a bigger opponent on her way to a game-high 12 points.
Newark Catholic (17-8), as expected, played a 2-3 zone and limited Anna’s chances to score near the basket, which might give Wiss an idea. Allen knew his team would face a 2-3 or 1-3-1 zone from scouting. The Green Wave played it well, keeping the ball away from the basket and closing out quickly to shooters with long arms held high.
“We felt like if we got an open shot, you better make it,” Allen said.
The Rockets (19-7) struggled to make shots. Both teams did. The margin was mostly one or two points and the score was tied eight times. Anna’s biggest lead was four twice. And when Newark scored with 4:11 left to take a 29-28 lead, Allen called timeout.
That’s when an adjustment to put leading scorer and 5-5 guard Makenzie Mumaw, who scored a game-high 12 points, on the left side paid off. She wasn’t afraid to attack the tall defenders, and this time, with 3:16 left, she drove the left side and got off a good shot that went in for a 30-29 lead with 3:16 left.
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Two minutes later Mumaw made a free throw for a 31-29 lead. Then Makenna Pettus, who scored 10 points, made two free throws with 54 seconds left for a 33-29 lead. Newark answered with a quick two, Mumaw missed two free throws, and Newark missed a tough shot.
Mumaw got another chance at the line and made one of two with 13 seconds left. Newark was down three but didn’t shoot from three-point range and missed a 15-footer with four seconds left.
Makenna Pettus scored 10 important points for Anna in the low-scoring regional semi-final with Newark Catholic.
“It was stressful,” Mumaw said of the late free throws and her team’s 9 of 19 effort at the line. “I knew we were fine, and I knew that they were going to keep fouling, so it was going to be me or someone else at the line. It just comes down to that.”
Allen, who previously was head girls coach at Wapakoneta for 14 years, has seen his team trust the process of learning to play for a new coaching staff. And he saw it in the way his team handled the pressure of a tight regional game.
“Honestly, it really wasn’t as nerve-wrecking as it was watching it,” he said. “I don’t mean we were in control of the game, but our girls were composed. I didn’t see any fear in their eyes, or I don’t want the ball in my hands. They were just really focused.”
Anna started 6-6 but found its way with two senior and three sophomore starters. And now they are one win from a state semifinal for the first time since 2020 in Division III even though that game didn’t get played because the state tournament was canceled.
“We changed a lot of things, and I told them be patient and trust the process, and they have,” Allen said. “They’ve been wonderful to coach. We felt like we could make a nice little run. We knew we were going to have to beat some good teams to get here, but we felt we were just as capable as anybody else, and the girls believed in themselves and each other.”
Minster 54, Arcanum 24
The Wildcats, led by Abriana Wuebker’s early 3-point shooting and a stifling defense, put themselves one win from the state semifinals for the first time since 2020 in Division IV. Wiss won state titles in 2018 and 2019.
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“Our defense halted them from running some stuff that they want to run,” Wiss said. “We just got in some good situations, and we got a couple of run outs. But really one of the keys to the game was the number of deflections and steals and dives on the floor. And Addi Inskeep had over 10 deflections in the post.”
Minster’s Kali Schmiesing made this shot from the baseline and then a 3-pointer late in the first half as Minster rolled to a 27-11 lead.
The Wildcats led 13-4 after one quarter and 27-11 at halftime. Wuebker made two 3-pointers in the first quarter and scored nine of her 12 points in the half. She went down with a knee injury in the fourth quarter and didn’t return. Wiss said it’s too soon to know if she will be able to play Saturday.
“When you face that kind of pressure, you’ve got to be strong,” Arcanum coach Abbey Moore said. “You’ve got to see it coming. You’ve got to hit the open man. And that’s very difficult to do, and we struggled with that. The turnovers really, really set us back during the first half.”
Moore didn’t give in, though. She sent her team out in the third quarter to play full-court pressure and forced turnovers.
“I knew we had to come out with some kind of fire, and we had to do something to get us going and to give us some confidence and hopefully create some easier opportunities for us,” she said. “We were able to do that.”
But when the Trojans got the ball, they still had to contend with Minster’s defense. So the third quarter didn’t change much and the Trojans trailed 35-18. In the fourth quarter, Minster’s depth took over the game, fatigue took over the Trojans and the Wildcats’ lead ballooned to 30.
Sadie Niemeyer scored all six of her points in the second half as Minster steadily pulled away.
“The depth of us running people in and out was a big key to the style of the game,” Wiss said. “Having some depth at this time of year is important, and especially with that style of play.”
Reece Albers also scored 12 for the Wildcats and Inskeep added 10. No one on the team averages double figures.
Minster’s aggressive defense limited Arcanum’s best scorer, Alexis Gibbons, to 10 points. Despite the lopsided loss, Moore is excited about what her team accomplished and the future of the program.
“We’re going to take this and we’re going to run with it,” she said. “We’ve got a great community, great support system, and I know we got a lot of young girls now looking forward to playing basketball and wearing this jersey with Arcanum on the front. So we’re gonna take that and we’re gonna elevate this program to a whole new level.”
For now, that level belongs to Minster and Anna. The Wildcats won by 19 when the teams met in December. Both teams are different now and playing the style of basketball they like.
And on Saturday, two old baseball teammates will see who gets to go to state.
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