Rockets stopped short of state

Lowellville fell to Mansfield St. Peter's tough defense in regional final.
MASSILLON -- Amanda Nero has made a lot of big baskets over her four-year basketball career at Lowellville High, but Saturday night she just couldn't come up with one more big shot.
Nero still finished as the game's top scorer with 18 points, but the Rockets couldn't overtake Mansfield St. Peter's falling 37-34 in the Division IV regional championship game at Perry High School.
The Rockets, who finished the year 22-4, led throughout the first half, but the Spartans came out in the second half and completely shut down their standout behind the defensive effort of senior Gretchen Polinski, the only returning starter off last season's state semifinal team.
Nero, who scored 16 points in the first half, including five 3-point goals, was held without a basket in the second half and only took six shots from the field. She scored two free throws.
St. Peter's (20-5) advanced to the Division IV state tournament next weekend in Columbus.
"We knew they were going to come out strong on Amanda in the second half and we were prepared for it," said Lowellville coach Tony Matisi. "We had a lot of girls with good open shots, but we weren't able to knock them down.
"I can't say enough good things about this team, they have been just outstanding all season long," he added. "It's tough going up against the great tradition that St. Peter's has in this tournament, but the kids battled back and we had a chance to win."
Lowellville, which led 15-11 after one quarter and 21-19 at the half, never trailed until the Spartans took the lead with 5:56 remaining in the third quarter, but they would never regain the lead.
The Rockets were held to just three points in the third period as the Spartans pulled to a 33-24 lead, behind the shooting of Kelly Antra and Whitney Lindsay.
Lowellville was still trailing 37-29 with 3:58 remaining in the contest when Sara Porter scored a basket and Kristen Pallozzi added a 3-point goal to cut the lead to three points 37-34 with 2:45 remaining.
Neither team would score again, but the Rockets had five more shots at the basket, three by Nero, but none of them fell, including her last attempt with three seconds.
"We should have never left ourselves in that position," Matisi said. "We gave them too many second and third shots in the first half and some easy buckets. We should have been up by 10 points instead of two."
Nero started out strong as she connected on three of her first five shots, all 3-pointers, and scored 11 of the Rockets' 15 points in the quarter.
She added two more 3-pointers in the second quarter to pull the Rockets back into the lead after St. Peter's had tied the game at 15-15.
But in the second half, the 5-8 guard, who holds all of Lowellville's scoring records and had 37 points in the first regional semifinal game, was shut down by Polinski.
St. Peter's did not score a field goal in the final quarter, adding just 4-of-9 free throw attempts and the Spartans missed three straight 1-and-1 attempts in the final minute of play.
Lindsay led the Spartans with 14 points, while Antra added 12.