Olentangy’s Kareena Agrawal ignited the Braves’ offense after Liberty began chipping away at the lead, preserving the win and setting up a showdown with Pickerington Central. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Brian Bayless)
Olentangy, Pickerington Central to meet in Saturday’s regional final.
Columbus, OH – Being able to respond to in-game adversity or an opponent’s run has been among the characteristics the Olentangy girls basketball team has relied on time and again while producing one of central Ohio’s top teams this winter.
The Braves always have a superstar to fall back on in junior Whitney Stafford, the Player of the Year in the Ohio Capital Conference-Cardinal Division, but they’ve been far from a one-person wrecking crew.
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During a Division I regional semifinal Wednesday against Olentangy Liberty at Taft Coliseum in the Ohio Expo Center, Olentangy found the answer it was looking for off the bench during a five-minute stretch of the second half when the matchup swung in the balance.
Veteran central Ohio columnist Jarrod Ulrey writes the OCC and sports at large for Press Pros
That’s when sophomore Kareena Agrawal scored 12 of her 14 points, setting the stage for a 55-45 victory.
The win sends the Braves to a regional final at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the same site against two-time defending regional champion Pickerington Central.
“We get a lot of shots off the perimeter, so that definitely helps with my role,” Agrawal said. “Once we got the ball moving, we hit some big shots.”
Most of the biggest ones belonged to Agrawal, who came in averaging 8.5 points but hit two three-pointers and produced a three-point play during the final moments of the third quarter as the Braves turned a 23-18 lead into a 36-26 advantage.
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Agrawal opened the final period with another three-pointer and stole the ball on the next possession, then assisting on a basket by senior Kate Mosher that made it 41-28 with 6 minutes, 2 seconds remaining.
The Patriots kept sending Whitney Stafford to the line and she made them pay with silky, smooth shots that caught nothing but net.
“She can really, really shoot the basketball,” coach Klarke Ransome said. “Everybody has multiple players, but tonight was Kareena’s night. When she makes the first couple, you can tell she’s feeling pretty good. She really got us going in the second half. We have multiple girls that can really put the ball in the basket, but kudos to her. She knows her role and works extremely hard.”
A season ago, Olentangy won its first district championship since 1998.
This winter, the Braves are 22-3 and have gone one step further by making it to the regional final. They’ve never made it to state before.
“We just want to keep it rolling,” Stafford said. “Our big thing was our response and staying connected and getting the ball moving. Our transition was working. Getting stops down there on the defensive end helped us in our offensive game.”
Stafford finished with 20 points, including making all seven of her free throws. She had 14 points in the first half as the Braves battled through defensive-minded Liberty to lead 19-11.
Chayla Rankin comes up with the loose ball and races down the court, pursued by Liberty’s Claire Mikola.
“(Olentangy) can score the ball,” said Liberty coach Tommy Waterwash, a long-time friend of Ransome whose team also lost in a regional semifinal last season. “They score in waves as we saw, and they have nine kids, any single one of them can hit two to three shots in a row. We’re a team that can play at different speeds, but we knew a low-scoring game was going to be in our favor. This team is the most resilient, tough team I’ve ever had. We have a lot of talent. This one hurts really bad because they supported each other.”
Senior Maria Stack finished with 19 points, including scoring 17 in the second half, as her team got back to within eight during the fourth quarter before the Braves closed it out.
Olentangy has just one loss to a central Ohio team this winter and has won eight in a row.
“I would say we trust everyone on this team and that everyone can do something on the court,” Stafford said. “We have players that will step up in the moment that they’re called on, and I think Kareena really did that. Her just getting hot, we kind of knew we’ve got this one. That helped us get going.”
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Pickerington Central 60, Dublin Jerome 29
Making their 10th consecutive appearance in the regional, the Tigers showed their poise early by building a double-digit lead by the end of the first quarter and leading 35-13 by halftime.
Pickerington Central’s Kennady Gordon puts up a floater during the Tigers dominating performance against Dublin Jerome.
Central, which will look for its third consecutive regional title when it meets Olentangy on Saturday, improved to 22-3.
According to coach Johnathan Hedgepeth, who is in the first year of his second tenure heading the program, the program’s success starts with defense.
“We switched everything believing our kids could match up one through five,” said Hedgepeth, who guided the program to the 2018 state championship. “To hold that team to (29) points, I can’t say (enough) about what our young ladies did.”
Junior Blossom Wallace and sophomore Zoe Coleman each scored 12 points, and senior Kennady Gordan added 11 for the Tigers, who haven’t lost to a central Ohio program all season.
“We want to get off to a good start on defense and have our defense transform into offense,” Coleman said. “We wanted to try to lock their best players down and start off with good intensity on defense. As soon as the bench comes in, it’s the same intensity. We don’t slow down.”
Senior Angel Ezirim, who has been offered by Ohio Dominican, and senior Emma Weatherwax each scored eight for the Celtics, who finished 19-6.
Jerome was competing in the regional tournament for the first time and also set a program record for wins in a season.
“They don’t want to hear about it right now, but this was a history-making season, and they should be proud of themselves,” Jerome coach Karli Burkett said. “Obviously we would have liked to have it be a little closer, but they’re a really good shooting team and sometimes things don’t go the way you want them to go. This was a really special group.”
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