DIVISION III GIRLS Newton Falls upends Raiders, wins 59-57

The Tigers have beaten the No. 3 and No. 2 seeds already and now faces No.1 seed Ursuline in the final.
By GEORGE WELKER
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
HANOVERTON -- Though it is cutting a new path, the Newton Falls High girls basketball team is counting down to what could be a first-ever district tournament championship.
Already, the Tigers have knocked off the No. 3 and No. 2 seeds at Division III tournament at United High School.
Now, the Tigers (15-8) have their sights on No. 1 seed Ursuline (18-5) in the title game, at 1 p.m. Saturday.
That matchup was set Thursday when Newton Falls upset No. 2-seed South Range, 59-57, and Ursuline defeated St. Thomas 52-41.
"They've knocked off the three seed, and they've knocked off the two seed. I'm sure they're coming to beat us Saturday," Ursuline coach Sean Durkin said of Newton Falls.
"They're going to come and play hard. We're going to have to find a way to get our intensity back up in a short period of time."
New ground: Newton Falls is breaking new ground because it has never been to the district final, coach Kelly Nelson said. The Tigers advanced to the district semifinal once in the late 1970s, but lost in that round, she said.
"We like to keep the crowd," Nelson said of her team's exciting upset victory over South Range (18-4), which came down to the final seconds.
Holding to its 59-57 lead on two free throws by Allison Huber, Newton Falls gave the ball over to South Range on a missed free throw and rebound with 33.8 seconds remaining.
After a timeout with 27.1 seconds to go, the Raiders worked the ball around half court until Jenn Toth drove inside the lane for a shot with about five seconds remaining.
Her attempt fell short, however, and Newton Falls rebounded with 3.4 seconds remaining.
"We had a shot right there at the end, but it just didn't go for us," said South Range coach Don Feren.
Injury: The drama was set up mainly because South Range played the entire fourth quarter without 6-foot-1 junior center Crystal Schuler, who went down with an ankle injury at the end of the third period.
As Schuler and teammate Kristin Skrinyer went after a loose ball, Schuler twisted her ankle and was done for the night. Feren said she will have X-rays, but the extent of the injury was not known.
"I don't like to see any kid hurt, but that was a benefit to us," Nelson said, adding that Schuler's absence took away the Raiders' inside attack.
Schuler scored 21 points in three quarters before being sidelined. She was the second-leading scorer, behind Newton Falls' Laura Toot, who scored 26.
Newton Falls took advantage immediately, opening the fourth quarter with a 6-1 run for a 52-46 advantage. But, the Raiders responded with an 8-0 spurt to regain the lead, 54-52, with 3:40 remaining on a 3-point shot by Mary Heubert.
Together: "I don't think they gave up at all. I think they said 'Come on, we've got to pull together,' and make up for [Schuler's] absence," Feren said.
The game saw 15 ties and 14 lead changes with the score being tied after the first quarter and at halftime.
Ursuline 52, St. Thomas 41: It took a while for Ursuline to take control. Throughout the first half, St. Thomas held close to Ursuline, never trailing by more than six points. But, the third quarter did in the Knights.
Already leading 29-25, Ursuline emerged from intermission with an 8-0 run and out-scored the Knights 10-2 in the quarter, not allowing St. Thomas a field goal.
"They play extremely hard. They're a difficult team to prepare for," Durkin said of the Knights. "They're just so aggressive. They pressure you from so many different angles ... and they bump you from all over the floor. You have to be ready for their aggression, and I think we were."
The third quarter gave Ursuline a 12-point lead, 39-27, which made Durkin more comfortable.
"Once we got it up to about 10, we didn't want it to whittle down much further, because they're very dangerous," he said. "We wanted to keep it up as close to double digits as we could."
After that, the Irish turned to a ball-control offense aimed at eating time off of the clock. That allowed freshman guard Courtney Davidson to thrive, either distributing the ball, or scoring herself. Davidson led all scorers with 22 points, while teammate Christina Cook added 15.