Friday, February 24, 2006
The unseeded Rockets successfully played the spoiler role.
By GREG GULAS
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
HUBBARD -- The Youngstown Christian girls basketball team was the No. 4 seed in the Division IV district tournament.
At 19-2 entering their game Thursday night with Lowellville, that seeding was justified.
What the Eagles didn't realize, however, was that Tony Matisi and the Lowellville Rockets know something about playing the role of the spoiler, having already knocked off the tournament's No. 1 seed McDonald.
The only real motivation the Rockets (16-6) needed came in the form of sophomore Allison Grapevine, who scored 20 points and hauled in 10 rebounds, leading Rockets to their seventh straight victory, 61-48, on her 16th birthday.
"I just wanted to play well, hoping that we could pull off the upset," Grapevine said. "It feels pretty good to play like I did on my birthday. Give credit to both [Kaitlin] McCarthy and [Jacque] Schrader, however, because they got me the ball when I was in great position near the basket."
McCarthy had a game-high 12 assists.
Transition key
"We watched plenty of tape and had a chance to see them in person. The key to their whole game is transition and we wanted to get them into a half court game," Matisi said of the Eagles.
"We lost some excellent senior leadership last year and without a senior on our team this year, we really didn't put together a string of victories early on like I had hoped," he added.
"Over the last month and a half we've played excellent ball at both ends of the court. That winning streak took a lot longer to happen for us, so to put some quality wins back to back like we have heading into tournament time makes me cautiously optimistic each and every time out."
Grapevine's six points in the first period propelled the Rockets to a 12-6 lead, but Kara Cooper netted eight of her game-high 21 points in the second period as the Eagles cut the Rocket lead to 24-22 at halftime.
McDonald 57, Mineral Ridge 41
Ashleigh Tondo poured in 24 points and Emily Dolsak added 14 to lead No. 1 seed McDonald. Tondo finished with a triple double, adding 18 rebounds and 10 steals. Dolsak also had five assists.
"Mineral Ridge has improved steadily, especially on defense since the beginning of the season. They gave us a real scare tonight and that's a direct tribute to their coaching staff and players," Blue Devils coach Rob Hilbun said.
"Dolsak got in foul trouble early for us so we had to adjust our game plan. Tondo then stepped up and gave us a great effort at both ends of the court. She is an excellent offensive rebounder and helped us put pressure on them defensively, creating quite a few turnovers that led to points for us."
Mineral Ridge (8-13) led 17-16 with 3:40 remaining in the first half, but three baskets by Tondo keyed a 10-1 run by the Blue Devils (21-1) as they took a 26-18 lead at the intermission.