Abbi Mader goes up for a shot against Bellefontaine in the Division III girls basketball tournament at Springfield. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Julie Wright-Daniel)
Tippecanoe and Butler both blasted inferior opponents Thursday night to set up a third girls basketball clash of the year.
By Marcus Hartman for Press Pros
Springfield, OH —No. 4 seed Tippecanoe and No. 5 seed Butler both took care of business in the second round of the Southwest District Division III girls basketball tournament Thursday night.
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That means round three between the Miami Valley League rivals is on tap next week in the semifinals.
They played eight quarters of basketball Thursday night, and about about two of them were competitive.
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Both came in the first game, a 52-35 Butler win over West Carrollton that turned out much different than it started.
Butler led 8-4 early, but No. 13-seed Pirates tied it at 10 on a drive by Tristyn Armour early in the second quarter then went ahead on a 3-pointer by Cydney Grigsby.
West Carrollton took a 17-16 lead into the locker room at halftime, at which point head coach Molly Bardonaro said she had to deliver some tough love to her team.
“We kind of just laid into them a little bit and just said, ‘We’ve got to get our paint touches. I don’t know why we’re scared to drive. We’re scared to shoot right now,’” she said.
Emma Dady led Butler in scoring in a second round D3 tournament win over West Carrollton in Springfield.
“Before we shoot, we’ve got to get a paint touch, meaning drive or pass, and once we did that, things opened up for us. They got tired, started forcing shots, and we were able to get rebounds and go, which is our game.”
Her message did not immediately take hold, but better late than never.
Grigsby made it a four-point game with a 3 to start the scoring in the third quarter, but that only delayed the inevitable.
That’s when the Lady Aviators (20-3) found themselves, surging into the lead with a 16-2 run that featured three baskets by senior post Emma Dady and five points apiece from Dillan Bardonaro and Alexa Moeller, the three-headed monster that has powered Butler all season.
West Carrollton never recovered from that blow, and the Pirates finished the season 5-18 despite 13 points from Grigsby, a 6-foot senior playing her final high school game.
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Dady finished with 22 points for Butler while Moeller, a freshman wing, added 12 and Bardonaro, a junior point guard, had seven.
That has been the winning formula for the Lady Avs all season. Dady averages 15.1 points per game, Moeller 11.5 and Bardonaro contributes 8.3 points and 3.0 assists.
Dillan Bardonaro goes up for a layup against West Carrollton in a Division III tournament game.
“Everybody’s accepted their role,” Molly Bardonaro said. “We’ve got a good point guard in Dillan. She knows she can run the floor well for us, Emma’s a good interior post player. Lex is good all around attacking the lane and shooting outside, and our defense has been our No. 1 thing for the whole season. It has been for years, and it’s just we pride ourselves on that. And if if our defense is working, everything else comes along with it.”
The second game Thursday night did not start slowly for the favorite.
Boredom could have been more of an issue for Tippecanoe as the Lady Red Devils improved to 21-2 with a 57-12 win over Bellefontaine.
Tipp scored the first 16 points and led 22-3 at the end of the first quarter.
A couple of quick Chieftain baskets early in the second quarter prompted Tippecanoe coach Brett Kopp to call timeout, and Mader responded with a 3-pointer from the top of the key then a steal and a layup to push the Tipp lead to 25 with a little less than six minutes to go in the half.
Alexa Moeller draws a foul against West Carrollton in a D3 girls basketball tournament game.
The Red Devils only scored four points the rest of the quarter, though they also allowed only one basket, something Kopp said is his team’s calling card.
“We’ve kept teams to zero points in multiple quarters,” Kopp said. “Like when we sit down and guard and we rebound, we’ll figure out the offensive stuff. We figured it out as we’ve gone, but if we’re going to make a run, it’s going to come defensively.”
Mader had 15 in the first half while Liv Hiser added 12. They ended with 19 and 18, respectively.
For Mader, that is usually how it goes — the 6-foot sophomore led the MVL in scoring at 19.3 points per game — but for Hiser (a 5-10 junior) that was a season-high and triple her season average.
In his first season at Tipp, Kopp produced a league championship and perfect mark in league play, and he said there is little mystery why.
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“Good players,” he said. “It doesn’t hurt to have the players we do. Doesn’t hurt when they’ve had the success in soccer and volleyball that they’ve had.”
Savannah Clawson activated the running clock with back-to-back baskets midway through the third quarter, freeing everyone who wasn’t already to think about the next round.
Liv Hiser goes up for a basket against Bellefontaine in a Division III girls basketball tournament game.
“Our goal is to come compete, and we talked about whatever it takes to win that game in tournament time we’ll do,” Kopp said. “We’re not ready for it to be over, so just whatever we can do to just move on to another day of practice.”
The Miami Valley League Miami division champion, Tippecanoe won both of the regular season contests against Butler — VBHS’ only league losses — but any coach will tell you beating a team three times in a season is hard.
The Lady Aviators actually were reminded of that Thursday night.
They dismantled the Pirates twice in the regular season — winning 64-30 and 56-20 — before struggling with them for about 18 minutes in the tournament.
“It’s very hard to beat a team three times; It is,” Molly Bardonaro said. “But that doesn’t take anything away from Tipp. Tipp is good. Tipp is very good this year. They’re well coached. They’ve got so much size and length on them.”
Coach Brett Kopp (kneeling) is in his first season coaching the Tippecanoe girls basketball team.
As for the first two Butler-Tipp tussles, they did not resemble each other much.
Mader had 12 points and Bardonaro 14 in a 42-30 Tipp win in Vandalia on Dec. 11, but the rematch was no contest.
Mader had 15 to match Butler’s total output in a 51-15 beatdown Jan. 7 in Tipp City.
“The second time we played them was quite possibly the worst game we’ve ever played, and they were hungry,” said Bardonaro, who is in her 12th year as head coach at Butler. “Tipp was hungry, and they came out and got it. So I think it’ll be a much better game.”
“We’ll be prepared.”
Obviously, Kopp does not expect a repeat of round two next Wednesday when the teams square off again at 7:30 p.m. back at Springfield High School.
“It comes down defense and rebounding,” he said. “They’re not going to play like they did the second time. We’re going to expect more like the first time and even better. We’ve seen them on film a few times where they’ve really competed. Our girls are going to have to really put in the work.”
Mady Turner shoots over a Bellefontaine defender in a D3 tournament game at Springfield.
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