Pickerington Central’s Mikaila Asomoah, Blossom Wallace and London Johnson celebrate the Tiger’s 49-41/OT win over Magnificat. (Press Pros Feature Photos by Lorrie Gardner)
After trailing by eight at the half, the Tigers forced 22 turnovers after halftime and emerged with an overtime victory.
Mansfield, OH – As Pickerington Central showed Sunday, there’s nothing quite as motivating as seeing eye-popping negative numbers on a stat sheet.
That’s the situation the Tigers found themselves in at halftime of their latest state tournament appearance – No. 16 overall and their third in a row – against a veteran Rocky River Magnificat in a Division I semifinal at Mansfield Senior.
Through two quarters, Central was being outrebounded by 15, had four players in foul trouble, were shooting just 35 percent from the floor, and trailed by eight points.
Veteran central Ohio columnist Jarrod Ulrey writes the OCC and sports at large for Press Pros
To turn the tables, the Tigers turned up the heat with pressure defense, didn’t settle for jumpers and neutralized the Blue Streaks’ inside power with physicality.
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It took a clutch move in regulation and an unsung hero in overtime to get the Tigers over the top, but they prevailed 49-41 to advance to the championship game at 8:30 p.m. March 15 against Cincinnati Princeton.
“Of course we got the stat sheet, and we were losing rebounding by double digits,” Tigers coach Johnathan Hedgepeth said. “We knew what to expect from them. They’re a well-coached, senior-led team. They’re big and they were just tougher than us (in the first half). Our emphasis was winning the quarter, winning the rebounds, and showing a little toughness and grit like we were supposed to.”
Central forced 30 turnovers overall, including 22 after halftime.
The Tigers, who lost in state semifinals each of the past season, take a 24-3 record into the title game. They won their seventh state championship – including their first under Hedgepeth – in 2018 and lost in the state final the next season.
To tie it at 37 and force overtime, senior guard Kennady Gordon drove coast-to-coast and laid it in just before the buzzer.
Then in the extra session, junior guard Gabby Plair hit a three-pointer 46 seconds in, scored on a putback with 1:49 to go, grabbed a steal eight seconds later and also made a free throw as the Tigers outscored Magnificat 12-4.
Pickerington Central’s Gabby Plair appears to take a charge from Magnificat’s Reese Roggenburk, but no foul was called on the play. Plair’s play went into overdrive in OT to spark the Tigers to a 49-41 victory.
“It’s weird because at the start of the playoffs, (Plair’s) practices became exponential,” Hedgepeth said. “She started doing a great job and adjusting to the regionals, getting big plays. She’s been great throughout the tournament, from the district to the regionals, to now, just getting big plays.
“We actually ran the last play that Kennady scored for (Plair). We were going to try to win it with a 3, but I told Kennady if she sees a gap, she can take it. Honestly, I’m watching the action in the corner, but I see her with a clear lane to the rim and was just praying that it went in.”
Plair didn’t score before overtime but wound up with six points and three steals overall.
“We decided to play our game and stop rushing things, trust each other and calm down,” Plair said. “I just stay ready every game and try to help out my team however I can. I just did that with my steals and my points in the end. It’s really important to me because everybody knows I can do it, and I tried to do my best to move us into the state championship.”
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The Tigers were outrebounded 23-8 during the first half and trailed 23-15 going into the break as Magnificat’s Reese Roggenburk – a 6-foot-2 senior who will play for Stone Hill – had 15 points and nine rebounds.
The Tigers forced 11 turnovers in the third quarter as Roggenburk and senior Gemma Wichmann, who is 6-foot, each picked up their third fouls.
Blossom Wallace puts up a floater in the lane just past Magnifcat’s Reese Roggenburk.
With a basket by Gordon that came with 7:11 left in the fourth quarter, Central completed a 12-0 run and had its biggest lead at 29-24.
“We were in the locker room (at halftime) with our heads down, but we came into the third ready to dominate,” Tigers junior London Johnson said. “I’m glad we stepped it up. We wanted to rattle them and get their crowd to be quiet and get our crowd going. We just had the mindset that we didn’t want to lose. We’ve come this far.”
Magnificat senior Julia Hall, who will play for IU Indianapolis, produced two three-point plays in the fourth quarter, but the Blue Streaks played the final 3:57 of the regulation and overtime without Wichmann after she fouled out.
The Blue Streaks made just two of six from the free-throw line during the final two minutes of the fourth quarter and wound up 15 of 23 overall.
Roggenburk was limited to two points after halftime and finished with 17 points to lead her team.
The Blue Streaks, who finished 20-6, missed all 10 of their 3-point attempts.
The Tigers experienced a wide range of emotions, such as in this instance when Coach Johnathan Hedgepeth consoles Zoe Coleman after a missed free throw in the closing seconds of the fourth quarter.
“Our two focal points for the game were rebound the ball and don’t turn the ball over, and we did a great job in the first half rebounding for sure,” Blue Streaks coach Danny Gallagher said. “Things got a little out of control (in the second half). We slowed ourselves down, but I’m super proud of them to come back and take the lead and be in position to win the game. Sometimes it doesn’t fall your way.”
Sophomore Zoe Coleman led the Tigers with 13 points and four rebounds while Johnson had 12 points and junior Blossom Wallace chipped in 10 for the Tigers.
“With us turning them over a lot in the third quarter, we were able to keep people in front of us, not reach as much, and the pressure kind of helped us alleviate some of the fouls,” Hedgepeth said. “They’re so disciplined. We didn’t want to start off pressuring them because one skip pass equals a 3 or a layup. They took us out of a lot of what we wanted to do, but we made some adjustments.
“I’m fortunate. It’s a blessing and a curse at Pickerington Central. This game is not the expectation. (The state final) is. This has been our goal from the beginning.”
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