St. Henry’s Leah Lefeld scores a clutch bucket in overtime to help the Redskins to a 46-41 win over Fort Loramie in double overtime. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Julie Wright)
For the second time in four days a quality opponent beat defending champion Fort Loramie by playing their own…defense, turnovers, and timely shooting in a double overtime finish.
Fort Loramie, OH – Rare as sighting a California Condor these days, Fort Loramie Redskins coach Carla Siegel could be seen holding her head with both hands Tuesday night, enduring a frustrating, and yes, surprising, 46-41 double overtime loss to the St. Henry Redskins.
The Minster Bank proudly sponsors your favorite sports stories on Press Pros Magazine.
In fact, troubling, given that for the second time in 72 hours Siegel’s defending state champion Redskins…who make their living by playing defense, creating turnovers, and scoring easy buckets…suffered their second consecutive defeat when St. Henry (12-2) turned the tables, playing superb defense, creating turnovers, and scoring some easy buckets to the astonishment of the partisan home Loramie crowd.
Redemption for St. Henry, coming off a frustrating loss of their own on Saturday, to Spencerville.
Frustration for Loramie, coming off what Siegel had hoped to be an epiphany Saturday of what happens when you don’t take care of business against a quality basketball team.
“They (St. Henry) did play good defense,” said Siegel in her office, a half hour after the game. “It ranked right there with Ottawa-Glandorf on Saturday. We just didn’t respond. We had a great halftime talk and came out to outscore them 13-3 in the third quarter. It was awesome.
“And then I don’t know what they were thinking in the fourth quarter. We were down, we fought back, we were down again, we fought back…we do the things we need to do to get back in the game. But then we do crazy things like not cherishing every possession…we don’t take care of the ball. The accountability on this team…we need to grow up!”
St. Henry’s Alexis Buschur attacks the rim for two of her 12 points against Loramie.
It was close from the outset, St. Henry’s Alexis Buschur and Lauren Thieman canning a pair of three-point shots to give the Redskins a 10-7 first quarter lead.
In the second a near-repeat of the first…Buschur led off with another three, had 5 for the quarter, while the defense was holding Loramie Avery Brandewie to just 4 first half points. They led 21-17 at the break.
And yes, in the third Loramie did get it going, outscoring St. Henry 13-3 on the strength of shooting from Mylee and Maddie Shatto, and climbed to a 30-26 entering the fourth quarter.
Historically, this is when Loramie wins its most challenging games…pressure defense, turnovers, transition points off those turnovers…devastating the psyche of opponents. But St. Henry didn’t read the script.
St. Hank turned up pressure with their on-ball defense, created panic and indecision, and some uncustomary decisions with the ball and shot selection. After another three from Morgan Baumer, and a three-point play by Alexis Buschur, they had wiped out Loramie’s not-so-comfortable six-point lead.
Maddie Shatto hit another long three to put Loramie ahead with two minutes left in the game, but clutch free throw shooting by St. Henry’s Molly Wendel and a running bucket by Leah Lefeld erased that lead and neither team could break the ice before the horn signaled overtime.
Bunny’s Pharmacy, in downtown Sidney, supports the Shelby County League on Press Pros.
Loramie jumped out with a three-point play to take the early lead in OT, only to have St. Henry score the final three points to tie it again…41-41.
In the second overtime it was St. Henry who got the early three-point lead, then denied Loramie on no fewer than four occasions within five feet of the rim. A strip and steal by Morgan Baumer on Maddie Shatto took air out of Loramie’s sails, and then her work at the foul line sealed the deal, 46-41. Baumer scored ALL five points in the final four minutes.
Victoria Mescher scores on a reverse layup for Fort Loramie around St. Henry’s Leah Lefeld.
Alexis Buschur and Morgan Baumer each scored 12 point to pace St. Henry.
Victoria Mescher had 13 and Maddie Shatto had 10 to lead Fort Loramie.
“I’m just super proud of the effort from the girls,” said St. Henry coach Nate Uhlenhake. “I mean, they fought for four quarters, plus some more. Was it perfect? No, but we kept battling and I’m super proud of they played after a tough loss on Saturday.
“It was a good win. A good bounce-back. We worked hard yesterday and the girls came out tonight and responded. That’s all you can do and hope the outcome takes care of itself.”
A good win?
Given the magnitude of things, it was St. Henry’s best win of the season…depending on what they do against Marion Local on January 30. You just don’t get that many opportunities to beat a defending state champion!
Minster Dental proudly support area sports of all sorts on Press Pros.
But given the same magnitude of things in the Loramie locker room, it stood as the worst of their back-to-back losses…because you could sense that Siegel had expected the same kind of bounce-back from their own disappointment on Saturday. Hoping for more predictable scoring, better decision-making, and a more confident comportment in the face of another quality challenge, Siegel was left with her hands to her head.
“I think right now we’re stuck in a rut,” she said quietly. “You play a lot of big games and sometimes you get into these lulls. So we’ve got a big weekend coming up and hopefully we can rebound. We play three games in four days, so hopefully we can get back on track.
“This is a good team,” she said in defense of her group. “We have good outside shooting, when we take them, we’ve got great post players, and I think our defense is pretty good. We held them to 36 in regulation and that’s good defense. I’m just not happy with the 36 that we had. We need to tighten a couple of things and try to get better.”
And if she can do that against Lima Bath (4-8, Saturday) and Bellbrook 12-2, Monday) they’ll be back on track.
Uncharacteristically, characteristic.
The ‘Edge’ proudly sponsors the Midwest Athletic Conference on Press Pros Magazine.com.