Katey Litten led Versailles in scoring this season, and racked up 17 to start the postseason. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Logan Howard)
Versailles and Miami East cruised past Northeastern and Preble Shawnee respectively in their opening sectional tournament games. The Tiger offense and Viking defense led to running clocks in the second halves.
Trotwood, OH – Miami East’s and Versailles’ opening tournament games stayed close … until the tip-off. Both teams took a lead in the first 10 seconds and never looked back. Versailles pummeled Springfield Northeastern 77-29, and Miami East followed with a 57-20 throttling of Preble Shawnee.
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Save for the first 45 seconds of Miami East’s third quarter, both teams played with a running clock for the duration of the second half.
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It didn’t take long to get ugly. Versailles led 14-2 after two minutes and eight seconds of play. And given the disparity in every phase of the game, that was comfortably within “no doubt” territory.
Miami East didn’t explode to the same start, but still led 14-2 with 2:20 to go in the first.
The halftime deficits of 36 and 32 left the thin crowds to wonder who benefited from the mismatch unfolding on the court.
Believe it or not, some others had it worse. Much worse.
From the Southwest District alone: 68-2, 84-9, 58-12, 86-18, 66-17.
Even with a sample size of just two years, you have to at least ask whether seven-division tournament basketball is serving its purpose.
Double teams barely slowed down Jena Heitkamp on the way to 19 points.
But Versailles and Miami East did what they could with the situation presented to them.
Versailles’ Lady Tigers took the floor first, and didn’t stoop to the competition. Their fiery offense led the MAC in scoring with over 50 points per game. In the tournament opener, they eclipsed that mark by halftime.
“In a game like that, we try to get opportunities that we miss in games that are close,” Versailles coach Tracy White said. “In the second half, we worked on getting the reseal from the back side on the reversal. So something like that, we work on elements that we aren’t able to work on in games that are tough.”
They executed offense with “impose your will” level dominance in all facets. Threes, transition, half-court sets, low post, offensive rebounds … you name it, they did it.
“Today was about getting the best shot possible,” senior guard Katey Litten said. “We were looking for the open person and making the extra pass.”
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Jena Heitkamp led all scorers with 19 points by owning the paint and everything in it. On offense, she scored at will from the block, even when double-teamed.
“It was my guards getting me the ball,” said Heitkamp on what was working well for her. “And we were all running in transition, which we talk about every single day.”
Elli Stammen elevates for a bucket during Versailles’ opening 14-2 run.
On defense, she teamed up with fellow forward Kynnedi Hager to deny any would-be dribble drivers. And Northeastern didn’t even hope to score from the low post. Hager scored 10 points with a mixture of post and long-range shots.
Largely thanks to Hager and Heitkamp, Versailles rebounded over 50% of its own misses in the first half.
Litten spearheaded the outside shooting with 17 points – all in the first half, as the reserves took command of the second half.
The third-seeded Tigers advance to play the No. 6 seed Valley View, which came back in the fourth quarter to knock out Greeneview 50-46 moments before the Versailles game.
“We played [Valley View] last year too,” Litten said. “It’s good to play the same team again because we kinda know what we’re looking for. So hopefully we just come in and dominate.”
The Lady Tigers won that ordeal 60-40.
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They’ll have to deal with Valley View’s press, but if they can get the ball down the floor, they’ll look to press their height advantage against the Spartans, none of whom measure above 5-foot-8.
“It’s gonna be a battle,” Hietkamp said.
The winner there will play for the district title on Saturday, likely against the No. 1 seed Madeira.
Miami East’s Olivia Loughman pokes away a steal and takes it all the way for two.
Whereas Versailles feasted on offense, Miami East made its living on defense – more specifically, on its signature man-to-man full-court press.
“We have girls that can give pressure and play defense,” head coach Spencer Elifritz said. “And they know if they wanna get on the floor, they have to play defense first.”
Miami East’s Kylie Gentis led all scorers with 19 points.
The Lady Vikings ran an 11-player rotation, even before the score got out of hand. That allowed them to press at 100% speed as long as they wanted.
They forced 15 turnovers in the first half to sprint out to a 41-9 halftime lead.
“I felt like my girls just kind of panicked and were for some reason scared because we were ranked so much lower than they were,” Preble Shawnee coach Anitra Roell said. “We just couldn’t get into a groove of running a press breaker correctly to get the ball up the floor.”
After leading scorer Kylie Gentis (19 points) pushed the lead to 35 to initiate the running clock, they called off the press and coasted to a 57-20 win.
“The steals are what spark our offense,” Gentis said. “So we really focus on the defensive energy and running the floor.”
East’s endless supply of guards exhausted Preble’s ball handlers. Stella Bowman, Olivia Loughman and Caitlin Howell, among others, swiped dribbles and passes alike, and scored in transition.
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Loughman came off the bench to create more chaos and scored six points in the second quarter, all off of turnovers.
Stella Bowman [center] and Josie Mondello-Garrett [right] battle for a loose ball.
The same could be said for nearly all 11 rotational players. Eleven different Vikings scored, and only Gentis and Loughman surpassed five points.
“We’re not running sets for any of our stars, because we don’t have any,” Elifritz said. “So for us, it’s anyone any given night.”
That equal opportunity style earned them a rematch against Anna, which beat them 39-28 in Casstown less than two weeks ago.
“That’s obviously a different challenge,” Elifritz said. “We looked forward to that game in the regular season. Anna’s a great basketball team and they play in a great conference. So this is a great sectional final-type game. Or a district semifinal. Whatever they’re calling it now.”
Both Gentis and Loughman said a big issue against Anna was a lack of turnovers that they rely on to score points.
The rematch victor will take on either Mariemont or Georgetown in the district final.
Hopefully by then 68-2, and the like, aren’t still rearing their ugly heads.
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