South Range prevails in OT duel; Columbiana jars Ursuline, 53-49

The Raiders and Clippers square off next Thursday
in a district semifinal.

By JIM FLICK

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

MINERAL RIDGE — Top-seeded South Range survived an overtime battle against Waterloo, while Columbiana upset third-seeded Ursuline in the Division III girls basketball tournament Thursday at Mineral Ridge High School.

South Range (18-3) and Columbiana (12-9) will square off at 6 p.m. next Thursday in one of the district semifinals.

South Range defeated Waterloo 56-53 in overtime, while Columbiana beat Ursuline 53-49.

South Range shot out to a 17-6 first-quarter lead. The Raiders went into the locker room at halftime ahead 31-20 and appeared to be in control of the game.

South Range’s Autumn Carter paced the Raiders with 14 points in the first half, while Ashley Bault led Waterloo’s first-half efforts with 10 points.

Waterloo (10-11) slowed down the pace after halftime, outscoring South Range 10-7 in the third quarter to cut the Raiders’ lead to 38-30.

In the fourth quarter, the Vikings outscored the Raiders 18-10 to even the score at 48 at the end of regulation. The second-half assault on South Range was led by Sarah Wojciechowski, who scored 15 of her 20 points after halftime.

In overtime, South Range outscored Waterloo 8-5. Sophomore point guard Caitlin Carter led the Raiders in overtime, scoring six points at the free throw line.

After scoring a basket in overtime, Carter, South Range’s leading scorer, fouled out.

South Range coach Matt Reel said he wasn’t fooled by Waterloo’s first half performance.

“We knew they weren’t going to play that bad all game,” he said. “We kind of let them back in. We didn’t handle the ball well.”

But in overtime, with the Raiders’ top offensive threat on the bench, “the other girls stepped up … and brought us home,” Reel said.

In the first game of the night, ice cold shooting from the field caused Ursuline (14-8) to fall behind early. Columbiana led the Irish 11-9 at the end of the first quarter and 30-19 at halftime.

In the first half, Ursuline connected on only 6-of-28 shots from the field.

Columbiana connected on 12-of-26 shots in the first half. The Clippers’ top scorer in the first half was Katie Whitmer, who scored seven points.

But the Irish battled back in the second half, led by Jaleesa Beverly, who scored 10 of her game-high 15 points after halftime. Ursuline drew to within a point of Columbiana at 44-43 with 3:28 remaining in the fourth quarter when Kaneesha Tensely sank a pair of free throws.

Columbiana outscored Ursuline 9-6 in the final minutes to seal the win.

Katie Douglas led the Clippers with 12 points, while Whitmer added 11 for the game.

“We really came out ready to play in the first quarter,” Columbiana coach Jeff Hammond said.

But when Ursuline “turned up the head in the second half,” Reel added, “our girls worked together.”

“It was a hard-fought battle,” Hammond said.