Tondo's 13 points propel McDonald

By DOUG CHAPIN
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
HUBBARD -- Think of a Northeastern Ohio basketball player, a premier scorer, who is praised almost as much for passing the ball as for scoring. This player can have a huge impact on a game even without being the top scorer.
No, we're not talking about the Cavaliers' LeBron James who passed for the winning points Thursday night in Cleveland's win at Chicago, but McDonald senior point guard Ashleigh Tondo who scored "only" 13 points in the Blue Devils' 61-39 victory over Lowellville.
The victory put McDonald in the Division IV district final Saturday at 1 p.m. against Columbiana. The Blue Devils (22-1) played in the final last year, but lost 57-42 to Lowellville.
The Rockets (15-8) also handed McDonald its only loss this season.
McDonald's best
Tondo dished out 10 assists on offense, as Emily Dolsak and Amy Dolsak scored 23 and 17 points, respectively.
Tondo also grabbed 14 rebounds, playing in the middle of a 2-3 matchup zone which helped McDonald jump to an early 14-2 lead.
"Ashleigh wants to win and she does whatever she has to, to accomplish that," McDonald coach Rob Hilbun said. "If she isn't scoring for us she's setting up the other people to score.
"And she's athletic enough and a good leaper, so she can play inside on defense," Hilbun said. "We needed her to keep [Ali] Grapevine off the boards."
The Dolsaks also helped on the boards as Amy grabbed 11 rebounds and Emily six.
McDonald's zone was effective early, as Lowellville struggled to get good looks at the basket.
"When we lost at Lowellville, we used man-to-man and they run their sets so well, they scored 50 on us," Hilbun said. "So we decided to switch it up a little.
"Lowellville is a great team with good outside shooting and a good inside game with Grapevine," Hilbun said. "We had a good week of practice, we prepared well, watched plenty of film and put together a game plan. Then the girls came out tonight and executed it perfectly."
Though the Rockets got back to within five points later in the first quarter, they trailed 17-9 after Amy Dolsak's 3-pointer just before the buzzer, and they never could recover entirely from the early deficit.
"Every time we cut the lead to nine or seven, they came back with a run of five or six points," Lowellville coach Tony Matisi said. "It was frustrating for us, we would put something together and they always had an answer. They just have too many weapons."
Grapevine leads Rockets
Grapevine, a 6-foot-1 sophomore, scored 13 points but had just four rebounds.
Jacque Schrader led Lowellville on the boards with seven rebounds and Kristen Pallozzi had six to go with 10 points. Kaitlyn McCarthy had nine assists and seven points for the Rockets.
Lowellville closed within six points in the second quarter, but didn't score in the last two minutes of the frame and a bucket by Emily Dolsak and a 3-pointer by Amy Dolsak -- both off Tondo assists -- left McDonald ahead 30-19 at the half.
The Devils' lead fluctuated between 10 and 14 points in the third quarter which ended with a 39-27 score.
A 3-pointer by McCarthy with 4:50 remaining in the game cut the lead to 45-36, putting Lowellville within single digits. After a missed 3-pointer by the Rockets, Emily Dolsak scored as she and Tondo executed a backdoor play perfectly, starting a 13-0 McDonald run which settled the issue.
Lowellville has won a district title the last two seasons, but had no seniors on the team this year. Despite the Rockets' youth, Matisi said the program had high hopes.
"We have gotten very spoiled and despite having a young team we wanted to win the district," Matisi said. "We lost four seniors from the team that went to two regional finals and we don't have any seniors this year.
"That's asking a lot of a young team, but we don't want to set our sights too low. We won 15 and we're very happy with that and the experience we've gained."