Ohio Girls Run Away From W.Va.

18-2 run to start second half is key

By SETH STASKEY
The game rules for the Samuel Mumley OVAC All-Star Basketball Classic say teams can use a pressing defense if they so desire.

Well, the Ohio team so desired — and it paid dividends.

Using their athleticism and foot speed advantages on their West Virginia counterparts, the Buckeyes rolled to a convincing 85-69 victory Sunday afternoon at Ohio University-Eastern in St. Clairsville.

“Our pressure really hurt them,” said Monroe Central and Ohio head coach Troy Baker, who was working in the Mumley Classic for the first time in his career. “We put together three different teams and one of those was a press team and those girls really set the tone for us.”

The Buckeyes’ press team started the game, but almost came away empty handed since on the opposite end, the unit couldn’t get anything to drop early to get the pressure set up.

However, once they got the pressure set, the turnovers came with it for the Mountaineers. West Virginia scored the first points of the contest, but the Buckeyes proceeded to go on a 26-9 run during the course of the next 9 minutes.

Fort Frye’s Kourtney Booth, who was named Most Valuable Player of last Friday’s District 12 All-Star Game, had five points during the spurt. Monroe Central’s Taylor Jorris also had five points in the opening half.

West Virginia, however, rallied with 13 unanswered points to tie the game, but the Bucks finished the half on a 13-3 run and never looked back.

St. John Central’s Natalie Perzanowski, who is bound for the University of Toledo to run track, used her speed to force the issue several times. She had five points in the first half. Another standout for the Ohio side during the first half who wasn’t on the pressing unit was Cambridge’s Tamikka Snoddy, who scored six of her 10 in the first half.

The Ohio girls doused any hopes of a West Virginia comeback with an 18-2 run to open the half and promptly stretch the lead to 47-29.

Barnesville’s Allie Doan used her speed and tenacious defensive approach to ignite the rally, where she scored all six of her points. Twice she picked a West Virginia pocket and went in for an uncontested layup.

“All of our teams played well,” Baker said. “I thought we just had too much speed for them and once we got out to a decent lead, it made it real tough on them to do anything they wanted to do.”

West Virginia battled back slightly in the second half and trimmed the deficit to 11, but Ohio proceeded to score 11 of the next 12.

Snoddy and Barnesville’s Chelsey Keylor each came up big during the second, second-half run. Keylor hit a trey from the corner — in essence the final dagger — and finished with eight points.

Booth also drilled a pair of treys during the second half and finished with a game-high 13 points.

Booth, the Fort Frye standout, was complemented in the scoring column by Beaver Local’s Samantha Mobley, who scored eight, Union Local’s Sarah Abboud added a pair of bonus goals for six and St. John’s Sara Wamsley scored just five points, but she had half a dozen rebounds.

West Virginia, meanwhile, was led by Tyler Consolidated’s Cameron Yoho who scored 12. Magnolia’s Renee Shepherd added 11, while Bishop Donahue’s Krista Bittengle added seven.



Girls

Ohio 85, WEst Virginia 69

WEST VIRGINIA

Bittengle 3, 1-2 7; Cashdollar 0, 0-2 0; Dankovchik 0, 2-4 2; Davis 1, 0-0 3; DeFruscio 2, 2-4 6; Droginske 1, 0-0 2; Frye 0, 0-0 0; Hackathorn 1, 0-0 2; Higginbotham 0, 0-0 0; Jones 2, 2-2 6; Shepherd 4, 3-4 11; Stiglich 2, 5-7 9; Talkington 1, 2-3 4; Wiseman 3, 1-2 7; Yoho 5, 2-4 12; Totals: 26, 20-34 69.

OHIO

Abboud 2, 0-0 6; Booth 5, 0-0 13; Burke 1, 2-4 4; Burch 0, 0-0 0; Doan 3, 0-0 6; Hartman 0, 0-0 0; Hesson 1, 0-0 2; Keylor 3, 0-0 8; Mobley 3, 2-2 8; Perzanowski 2, 2-6 6; Snoddy 4, 2-2 10; Stillion 4, 1-2 9; Wamsley 1, 3-4 5; Jorris 2, 0-0 5; Hoff 1, 1-2 3; Totals: 32, 13-22 85.

Three-Point Goals: Davis; Abboud 2, Booth 3, Keylor 2.