Whitney Stafford dials in for 3 of her 21 points on the night, unfazed by a vocal and determined-to-distract Darby student section. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Brian Bayless)
In a matchup of unbeaten teams, the Braves got 21 points from Kent State-signee Whitney Stafford and held off several bursts of momentum by the Panthers to win 54-44.
Hilliard, OH – Even with one of central Ohio’s top talents to build around in senior guard Whitney Stafford, the Olentangy girls basketball team expected the season’s first half to include growing moments as five players took on key roles for the first time.
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So far, the two-time defending Ohio Capital Conference Cardinal Division champion Braves who were Division I regional runners-up a year ago have passed every test—including potentially their biggest league challenge to date.
In a matchup of unbeatens Friday night at Hilliard Darby, Olentangy grabbed the early momentum and stayed a few lengths ahead for the remainder of a 54-44 victory.
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“We knew what kind of team (Darby was) coming into this, and basketball is a game of runs, so we knew if they would go on these runs that we’d have to respond,” Stafford said. “It’s been going very well with (our new key players), and they’re buying into just being there and knowing what it takes to be out here. They’ve been a big part of our success.”
Behind a 21-point, nine-rebound performance from Stafford, a Kent State-signee who helped the Braves win district titles the last two years, Olentangy improved to 8-0 overall and 4-0 in the league.
Olentangy, which is ranked first in the state while Darby is seventh according to MaxPreps, flexed its experienced muscle while building an 8-0 lead.
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Junior Kareena Agrawal, who along with Stafford and sophomore Ava Alexander are the only key returnees from last year’s 22-4 team, scored five of those points.
It was a physically punishing game as on this play when Kareena Agrawal goes down hard as Darby’s Carmela Biedenbach wins the battle for the loose ball.
The Panthers are 7-1 overall and 3-1 in the league.
“Our effort and our toughness level, and our compete level, was good at the beginning,” second-year coach Klarke Ransome said. “Our effort level was really good. When they kind of made a push, we kind of settled down. We made a couple shots, and I thought we handled adversity and some tough times as a group really well. We came into a good team’s place and found a way to get it done.”
The Panthers got to within 17-11 with 3 minutes, 34 seconds to go in the first half, but 3-pointers from Alexander and junior Payton Kolberg, along with a trio of baskets by Stafford gave the Braves a 29-15 halftime lead.
Darby sophomore Taylor Cahill opened the third quarter with back-to-back 3-pointers to get her team back to within 29-21 but the Braves stretched the advantage back to 35-23 with 3:27 to go in the third on a putback basket by Stafford.
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Taylor Cahill goes up in traffic against a stubborn Braves’ defense.
The Panthers rallied to within 35-29 late in the third quarter and was as close as 51-44 with 1:19 remaining, but Olentangy always had an answer.
“We had a lot of energy, and I thought we kind of hit them first and just carried that throughout the whole game,” Alexander said. “We started making shots when we needed them.
“I’ve been playing with everyone on this team since I was really little, and we’re really connected. (Our response) was 100 percent defense. I’m always going to give as much effort as I can.”
Darby, which last season got drilled by Olentangy by 37 during the first round of league play but went on to go 15-9 and earn a district runner-up finish, has four returning starters and one of the area’s top freshmen in guard Calli Ludban.
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The Panthers have just two seniors in starting forward Cami Ludban, who along with Calli are daughters of athletics director Chris Ludban, and backup forward Dara Okonrende.
Calli Ludben tries to fight off Braves’ defender Ava Alexander late in the second half. Ludben scored 14, while Alexander would drop in 13 points, 7 of which occurred in the 4th quarter to secure the win.
A third Ludban in the program is Carli, a junior forward under fifth-year coach Chris Savage, who formerly coached at Upper Arlington for 13 seasons and at DeSales for three years but likes where his current program stands.
He’s particularly excited about having such a young team with a talent like Calli Ludban, who was held to 14 points but averages 20. Cahill led the Panthers with 15 points.
Calli Ludban has stepped in to help fill the shoes of Gianna Lane, who graduated after becoming the program’s leading all-time scorer and is now competing in track and field for Dayton.
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“We let Stafford go off for more than we should, and we let them get some easy ones,” Savage said. “They’re super talented and we didn’t do the things we needed to do early and had to fight back the entire game. We had to spend so much energy getting back into the game.
From tip off through the final buzzer, the physicality of both teams were on display with frequent loose ball scuffles and aggressive defensive coverage.
“I love where we’re at. It’s my fifth year here now, ad we’re starting to see some of teh benefits of our youth program and our skill work in the summer and spring. This was a great litmus test to see where we’re at. We (fell behind 8-0) and played them pretty much even the rest of the game.”
Alexander finished with 13 points, with seven coming in the fourth quarter, and Agrawal added nine for the Braves, who next travel Dec. 27 to face a Kettering Fairmont team that won its first six games.
“Whitney did a really good job of showing toughness around the basket and in delivering the ball, too,” Ransome said. “I thought she was super poised ad made really good decisions, and obviously she’s uber-talented. … (Alexander) has a motor that just doesn’t end and competes at a really high level, as tough as they come. We had five seniors last year, so experience-wise, we’re still figuring things out. I thought we were more consistent tonight with a few moments in the end that we need to clean up.”
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