McDonald routs Southern, 54-26

Joh’Vonnie Mosley had 16 points and 11 rebounds for the top-seeded Blue Devils.

By DOUG CHAPIN

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

HUBBARD — Seven of the 13 schools in the Division IV Sectional-District girls basketball tournament at Hubbard High are from the Inter-Tri County League Tier Two, so fans and players will see plenty of familiar faces over the next two weeks.

Top-seeded McDonald, which won the league this season with a 13-1 record, got the tournament started Saturday with a 54-26 rout of league rival Southern Local.

The Blue Devils (20-1) beat Southern 65-29 and 44-19 during the regular season.

“This is like our second season, so we really wanted to start out fast,” McDonald coach Rob Hilbun said. “I think it was 24-zip in the first quarter, and that’s starting out fast. We just wanted to build on that momentum and we got a lot of girls in the game.”

It was indeed 24-0 at the end of the first quarter as Southern (2-19) missed all nine of its field goal attempts in the period.

The Indians played better the rest of the way, as McDonald’s edge was 30-26 over the final three quarters.

Sophomore post player Joh’Vonnie Mosley totaled 16 points and 11 rebounds to lead the Devils.

Senior Emily Dolsak contributed eight points, eight assists and five steals. Lindsay Repp added 10 points for McDonald.

Southern got 12 points from Love Hill, eight rebounds from Hannah Kelm and four steals from Ashley Russell.

The Blue Devils have been in the district championship game the last three seasons, and won the title in 2006, advancing to the regional final. Four starters return from last season’s district final.

“You can’t beat that experience,” Hilbun said. “We’re hoping that carries us through tight games, and we had some tight games this year. We had big games against Lowellville, in overtime both times, so we’re used to close games.”

All four seeded teams are from the ICTL Tier Two. Leetonia, the only team to beat McDonald this season, is seeded second.

Lowellville is third and Sebring, in McDonald’s half of the bracket, is seeded fourth.

“We know each other so well. I think it’s good, we know what to expect from them,” Hilbun said about facing teams a third time in the same season.

“We think, in the tournament, everyone is 0-0 and anyone can beat us. We go in with that mentality in practice, we address that and we don’t take anyone lightly.”

McDonald’s next opponent isn’t from ITCL Tier Two, but probably is a bigger rival.

The Blue Devils face Mineral Ridge (ITCL Tier One) on Wednesday at 6 p.m. in a sectional bracket final.

“Ridge, we’ve been scouting them a lot, they’ve been playing real good basketball,” Hilbun said. “Throw out the records, they don’t mean a thing. They want to beat us and we want to beat them.”