A rare chance for Jordan Scully to score, this one coming right before the final buzzer. (Press Pros Feature Photos By Logan Howard)
Sidney has five straight Miami Valley League division titles to its credit, but Jamal Foster’s team still wants to know what it feels like to play for a district title.
TROY – When the Miami Valley League formed in 2019, Sidney needed a new girls basketball coach. More than that, Sidney needed someone to energize the program.
Veteran columnist Jeff Gilbert writes Ohio State football and OHSAA sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
The Yellow Jackets’ future seemed dim. They won two games in the 2017-18 season and finished 0-23 in the 2018-19 season. Not a job many coaches would want. But 30 coaches applied, and Sidney picked Jamal Foster, a 2007 graduate, with no head coaching experience.
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Foster’s resume: AAU coach and personal basketball trainer in Dayton. Foster was the right person for the job. His first team finished 15-8 and won the first of five straight MVL division titles. But getting past Greater Western Ohio Conference teams to earn a trip to the Division I district finals at Cincinnati Princeton has eluded Sidney.
Foster brought his team to Troy High School on Wednesday night looking to take that first step toward Cincinnati against No. 8 seed Centerville. Last year Sidney lost to Centerville in overtime in the sectional final. With junior guards Jordan Scully and Larkyn Vordemark and senior point guard Kiara Hudgins, the time seemed right for the No. 5 seed Yellow Jackets.
Centerville’s long arms and defensive position always seemed to be in the way of Larkyn Vordemark and her Sidney teammates.
At the start of the fourth quarter, Sidney had a one-point lead and more than hope that it would advance to Saturday’s sectional final. All this despite a defensive strategy by Centerville that kept Sidney frustrated. The Elks, finally wearing down the Yellow Jackets’ resolve, opened the quarter with a 12-3 run and finished off a 41-34 victory.
Sidney’s district dream again died at the hands of a GWOC team for the third time in five years.
“We do have a lot of good programs in our region,” Foster said. “But for us it’s just being able to battle when the girls are bigger than us and they’re a little bit deeper.”
Sidney (17-6) struggled to score because Centerville (15-9) is bigger and employed a version of the triangle-and-two defense to take away Scully and Vordemark. They were rarely open to shoot, and Centerville’s bigger forwards guarded the basket like it was Buckingham Palace.
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“That was a good game plan on their behalf,” Foster said.
Scully averages 14.7 points and shoots 36.8% from 3-point range. She made an early 3-pointer but didn’t score again until the fourth quarter. The last five of her 10 points came after Centerville took a 37-29 lead with 2:05 left. Vordemark, who averages 14.1 points, scored all four of her points at the foul line.
“She left every ounce of what she had out there today,” Sidney coach Jamal Foster said of senior point guard Kiara Hudgins.
“We were just trying to really frustrate them to try to make Sidney have to do something else rather than what they’re comfortable doing,” Centerville coach Adam Priefer said.
That left the offense to Hudgins. She scored 11 of her 16 points in the first half. She averages 11 points a game, but she isn’t used to being the player who has to score the most. She is a pass-first guard, most often looking for Scully and Vordemark.
“She was asked to score, defend, get people involved and lead, and she left every ounce of what she had out there today,” Foster said.
In the fourth quarter, the Elks got to the lead with patient offense that led to three straight assists for point guard Kaitlyn Palomino. Twice she fed Emily Grim for layups and once she found Caroline McDowell for a 3-pointer to complete the 12-3 run.
Sidney guard Larkyn Vordemark struggled to find open shots against Centerville’s defense.
On the other end, Sidney missed some easy shots and committed untimely turnovers.
“We have to be able to score and get those buckets, and in the second half we really showed fatigue on offense,” Foster said. “Our mantra and identity have always been defense. Now it’s just about being able to put enough points up to compete with some of those bigger schools.”
Next year when Ohio goes to seven divisions, Sidney will be in Division III away from all the GWOC schools.
“You try to compete no matter what division it is,” Foster said. “You hear about things that are supposed to be easier, but there’s good teams no matter what division you run into. We just got to work on being better in the postseason to make those runs that we’re hoping to make.”
For Hudgins, she loved being a part of the Sidney renaissance and being a part of something bigger than herself.
“This league and our Sidney community and playing for Sidney and playing for Jamal Foster, it’s great,” she said. “He brings a lot every day to practices and games. He’s always giving 100% just like us.”
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