Versailles’ Taylor Wagner shoots over a Waynesville defender during Div. III action Tuesday at Covington High School. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
The Tigers respond to losing the lead in the third quarter with a fourth-quarter defensive effort that leads them back to the district finals.
Covington, OH – Tracy White finished her post-game radio interview and hustled down the long hallway, carrying her son Jagger on her hip. She wanted to get to the locker room and celebrate another trip to districts with her Versailles girls basketball team.
Her players were waiting for her, but not where she expected.
Suddenly, the team jumped out from behind a wall on each side of the hallway, cheered loudly and everyone laughed. White and little Jagger were certainly surprised.
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But what didn’t surprise White is that she and her team were celebrating a victory that was far from a sure thing and one, according to the seeds, the Tigers weren’t supposed to win.
But the No. 5 Tigers came to Covington High School on Tuesday night full of confidence to face unbeaten and No. 2 Waynesville. They didn’t care that they lost to the Spartans 47-40 on December 30 in a back-and-forth game.
They didn’t care that Waynesville finished the third quarter with an explosive 16-5 run to surge to a 43-38 lead. But they cared about playing together, they cared about playing great defense, they cared about their program’s legacy.
So the Tigers refocused and dominated the fourth quarter, holding Waynesville scoreless for almost seven minutes, and won 53-47. Next stop is Saturday in the Division III district finals at Springfield High School against Norwood (18-6).
Versailles’ Katey Litten puts up points during Div. III tournament action at Covington on Tuesday.
“We came together at the end of the quarter, and I just said let’s relax,” White said. “We’ve done this for a week, we’ve worked against this pressure, we’ve done all of these things. There’s nothing that you haven’t seen before. They just got their run. Now it’s time to get ours.”
The Spartans (17-7) didn’t go on a scoring binge, but they binged on defensive stops, forcing turnovers, cutting off driving lanes and closing out to shooters.
“They were on a string,” White said. “We were all beating the pass, versus reacting after the pass, and limiting them to one shot. Our ultimate goal in the fourth quarter was to get a stop every single possession, and we have to get every single box out. And I felt like our girls just really took pride in that.”
With 1:24 left the Tigers led 49-43. They closed the Spartans out with two free throws apiece from Taylor Wagner and Katey Litten. Litten scored 14 points, Wagner 12 and guard Jenna Dirksen 14.
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White is in her fifth year as head coach. She took her first team, which was senior-led, to the regionals. Her next two teams missed the district tournament, which was unusual for the Tigers. But last year they reached the regional final.
“It was a new culture, new coach type of thing,” White said. “We took a couple years, had our highs and lows.”
Now they are one step from going back to regionals and continuing the program’s rich legacy.
Taylor Wagner eyes a Waynesville defender during Div. III tournament action at Covington on Tuesday night.
“I can’t give credit enough to our girls because they’ve been so focused and so zoned in and ready to play,” White said.
She loves the player-led team that has evolved on the strength of returning all but one player from last year. Tuesday night in a packed and loud gym demonstrated one of the reasons.
“You’ve got to have leaders on the court that can take over and make a call if they don’t hear me,” White said. “Our three seniors have really embraced that.”
Dirksen leads the Tigers in scoring for the second straight year and embraces her leadership role.
“Jenna is probably the ultimate leader because she does it by speaking, she does it by showing it,” White said. “And she can have the hard conversations.”
During the hectic moments of Tuesday’s game – like when White said the team played the last two minutes of the third quarter like it was the end of the game – Dirksen was a calming influence.
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“We all looked at each other, and we were like, ‘We’re going to get it done,’” Dirksen said. “We just needed to rely on each other.”
The leadership and togetherness traits begin in practice. They start with a high-five line before White shares a quote or thought of the day or discusses one of the program’s core values.
“We really, really invest time on them knowing each other and then being able to lead each other on the court,” White said.
The players sometimes take it a step farther and circle up and remind each other to practice hard, get better and do it together.
“They are great coaches, and they show us how to lead, and I believe that’s huge,” Dirksen said. “It’s even more than just basketball, showing me how to lead a team and how other people can lead each other.”
The team’s postgame antics are more evidence of the player-led culture. They’ve been going to the locker room and waiting for the coaches. After their first two tournament wins, they sat quietly on the benches while the coaches came in cheering. Then two seconds later the players jumped up and joined in.
The idea to change it up and hide and surprise White on Tuesday was, of course, the players’ idea.
No surprise there.
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