Howland, Liberty advance as rivals

The winners will meet in a district semifinal next Thursday at 6 p.m. at Fitch
By CHUCK HOUSTEAU
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
AUSTINTOWN -- The top-seeded Howland High Tigers looked in top post-season form as they easily disposed of Struthers, 66-27, in the nightcap of the girls Division II district tournament at Austintown Fitch High School Thursday.
In the first game, fourth-seeded Liberty battled through injuries to starters Katarina Neskovich and Brianna Pettway to turn back a spirited Poland effort, and advance with a 39-30 win.
Howland (18-4) and Liberty (14-7) will meet in a district semifinal next Thursday at 6 p.m.
Howland had just about a little bit too much of everything for the Wildcats to contain in their second-round game, and they took care of business rather easily.
"We came out and played hard," said Howland coach John Diehl. "We kept the intensity up for a long time. We pressed the entire first half and didn't really get tired.
"I'm not saying we're peaking just yet but we are playing real well."
Tall advantage
The Tigers had the advantage of a tremendous height mismatch with post players Ellie Shields and Alexa Williams having their way on the boards.
Shields is only a sophomore but at 6-foot-3 she was nearly unstoppable on the inside.
Shields scored 27 points and grabbed nine rebounds while 6-1 Williams scored 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds.
& quot;Any time we can get the ball inside with our height advantage we are going to come out on top," Diehl said. "They both can turn and shoot the ball very well."
Diehl said however that senior Melissa Airhart made the biggest difference with her outside shooting.
"Melissa's been shooting the ball real well of late and that opens up our inside game," Diehl said. "If she keeps that up in the tournament, we will have a good chance to advance."
Airhart connected on 7-for-13 fielders, including a 3-pointer for 15 points.
Defense delivers
With all the offensive prowess displayed by the Howland offense, it was the defense that stymied Struthers.
Howland forced Struthers (10-11) into committing 32 turnovers and held them to just 10 field goals in the game.
"Howland has the potential to make a big run here in this tournament," said Struthers coach John Grandy. "They have a good program with good players and John [Diehl] does a good job of putting them in the right spots to be successful.
& quot;What I'm most impressed with is not only their size but their quickness. Howland can get out and run and they did a good job of it tonight."
Struthers is a young team with plenty of talent returning including their two best players.
Junior Liz Valerio scored 12 points against the Tigers while sophomore Ashley Galbraith added eight points and eight rebounds.
Liberty rallies
In the night's opening game, Liberty rallied in the second half to overcome a 19-16 halftime deficit.
Junior Michelle Dykes scored 14 points and her sister, freshman Melissa Dykes, added 12 points to lead the Leopards' comeback.
Poland (3-18) opened up a 14-9 first quarter lead behind the strong shooting of guard Jessica Toth, but Liberty's defense limited the Bulldogs to just 16 points the rest of the game.
"I'm proud of the way we overcame the adversity of injuries to two of our starters," said Liberty coach John Hritz. "We really stepped it up in the second half and were able to get the win.
"We now have a week to rest our injured players so we could be at full strength for next week's game."
Toth led the Bulldogs with 11 points.