Hazel Francis scores in the lane on her way to a game-high 12 points. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Jeff Gilbert)
Russia routed Springfield Catholic Central to start a Division VII girls tournament trip it believes can end in Dayton.
By Marcus Hartman for Press Pros
New Carlisle, OH — Most people would not drive almost an hour to see a mechanic.
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Sometimes there is no other choice — especially when expectations are for high performance. In the case of Russia coach Mike Bashore, his team did not need major work.
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The engine is in good shape. The transmission runs smoothly. The brakes don’t squeak, and the tires handle most terrain they might encounter. There’s no light flashing on the dashboard or mystery sound to get checked out.
All Bashore’s Raiders needed Saturday was a tuneup, and they got just that at Tecumseh High School’s Reynolds Gymnasium in a Division VII girls basketball tournament district quarterfinal.
The No. 1 seed in the Southwest District, Russia finished the regular season 19-3. The Raiders went 11-1 in the Shelby County League, winning it by two games. They won their last seven games but had not played since Feb. 12 when they beat Legacy Christian 52-34.
That layoff had Bashore a little concerned about what he would see Saturday against No. 12 seed Springfield Catholic Central.
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Russia started a bit slowly, though that is probably nit-picking. The Raiders scored only five points in the first four minutes of the game. Seven quick points over the next minute and half made it 12-0, then Callie Goubeaux connected from 3-point range with two minutes on the clock to make it 15-0.
Cami Schafer’s first-quarter 3-pointer was part of a run of threes that accelerated Russia’s lead.
Cami Schafer tossed in another trey about a minute later, then Goubeaux found the range from deep again.
Suddenly it was 21-0.
Catholic Central senior Danaysha DeArmond scored from close range with 11 seconds left to keep the Fighting Irish (2-21) from being shut out, but by then the outcome wasn’t really in doubt.
Just in case, Russia continued the 3-pointer barrage. Aryana Cordonnier made one early in the second quarter then Schafer hit two back to back late in the quarter to push the lead into the 30-point range.
“We like to shoot the 3, but when we start stacking stops on one another, our offense gets better flow because just the energy builds with off of our defense,” Bashore said. “So we like to get out and run when we can, but we did a nice job when they packed that zone in.”
Trailing 35-6 at halftime, the Irish kept on some pressure early in the third quarter however bleak their outlook was. They did enough to prompt an exasperated look from Bashore as he called timeout 65 seconds into the stanza, though he admitted afterward he was looking for things to coach up at that point and didn’t want all those timeouts to go to waste.
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“They were getting easy cuts to the basket and getting shots and making drives to the basket, so just a little bit of a refocus,” he said. “Plus I had five of them. Wanted to use one of them.”
The Irish scored a couple more baskets before the Raiders really turned it on. Borchers banked home a basket to start a 13-0 run to end the third and activate the running clock.
Celeste Borchers scores inside in the first half as Russia assumed full control against Springfield Catholic Central.
Cordonnier had two baskets during the spurt while Hazel Francis added seven points.
That made it 50-11 heading to the fourth.
Russia scored the first six points of the final stanza to make it a 19-0 run and ended up winning by a 58-12 final. When all was said and done, the Raiders finished with nine made 3-pointers and one happy coach — at least for the most part.
One early tournament game can only provide so much satisfaction when a team decided months ago it wants to finish the season in Dayton with the program’s first Final Four appearance.
“We set the goal at the beginning of the year to get to the Final Four, so practices are intense every day,” Bashore said. “We just have to set a standard in practice. You have to work just as hard in practice as you do in the game, and these girls are perfect at that. They come to work every single day.
“So it’s a standard that we set. We talked tonight about coming out of the locker room: We play to the Russia standard, not to who we’re playing. So I thought we did a really good job of that tonight.”
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Francis, the SCAL Player of the Year, had 12 points while Schafer also tallied a dozen and Cordonnier added 10 for Russia.
DeArmond led Catholic Central with 10 points while Bella Lopez scored the other Irish basket.
The Raiders scored from three-point range and near the basket as Hazel Francis does so here.
The Raiders will return to Tecumseh High at 6 p.m. Wednesday for a district semifinal against No. 11 seed Springfield Emmanuel Christian.
The Lions ran out to a big lead Saturday against Jackson Center then had to hold on against the 10th-seeded Tigers. They had a chance to tie the score with a 3-pointer in the closing seconds but were unable to get a good look from beyond the arc and lost 46-43.
All-SCAL sophomore Tatum Riechert scored 16 points for JCHS while Bailey Evans added 15 as the Tigers finished their season 6-17.
In the third game, No. 5 seed South Charleston Southeastern got out to an early lead against Covington, and the No. 8 seed Buccaneers could never quite catch them.
The Trojans led 28-21 at halftime then extended it out to double digits in the fourth quarter before winning 61-51. Ryland Workman led the Trojans (14-9) with 27 points while Lyvi Bonifay added 10.
Senior Avery Koffer scored 23 points and classmate Delaney Murphy tallied 11 for Covington (8-15) before both got curtain calls from the Buccs fans with 16 seconds to go.
Russia’s Cami Schafer is caught from behind as Catholic Central never quit playing hard as the score grew until it reached a running clock.
The Trojans will play Ohio Heritage Conference rival Cedarville at 7:30 Wednesday night in the other district semifinal.
The No. 4 seed Indians (15-8) won the final game of the day, which turned out to be most thrilling by far. After rallying from an early 14-point deficit, Cedarville led No. 7 Troy Christian by 10 in the fourth quarter.
But the Eagles staged their own furious rally, tying the score on a 3-pointer by Riley Orange with 16 seconds left to cap a 12-2 run. They had a chance to win in regulation, but Troy Christian’s Reign Wilkins missed two free throws with one second on the clock.
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In overtime, Wilkins found herself in a clutch situation again and made it count, hitting two free throws with :01.7 seconds on the clock to tie the score at 62 and send it to a second overtime.
That turned out to be Lila Cook time. The freshman post player had two putbacks and made a free throw to give Cedarville a five-point lead, and that turned out to be enough.
Wilkins made another free throw and Karis Miller hit a 3-pointer to cut Cedarville’s lead to one, but Cedarville junior Katelyn Reed made a free throw to pad the lead and the Indians got two stops in the final 30 seconds to close out it.
Miller ended up with 17 points for the Eagles (10-13). Orange had 16, Wilkins added 14, and Sadie Jones finished with 10 for TC.
Sophomore standout Maria Christian led Cedarville with 25 points while Reed had 18 and Cook finished with a career-high 15.
Cedarville and Southeastern split their regular season meetings with both teams winning at home.