Boardman sublime in overtime

By TOM WILLIAMS

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

CANTON — After playing from behind for most of a tenacious defensive struggle, the Boardman High girls basketball team soared to a state tournament berth by dominating overtime of its Division I regional championship game against Howland.

Emily Abraham’s five free throws in the extra session, plus baskets by Monica Touvelle and Darryce Moore after missed free throws, gave the Spartans a 43-35 victory at the Canton Civic Center.

“How good was that game?” said Spartans coach Ron Moschella, who is taking his second team to Columbus in 28 years as coach. “It was hard-fought; Howland played their butts off.

“The rebound that Ryce Moore got, she had no business getting ... and the big rebound that Monica Touvelle got,” Moschella said. “Our kids just willed this victory. It looked pretty doom and gloom there for a while.”

Next Friday at 6 p.m., the Spartans (19-7) will play either West Chester Lakota West or Dublin Coffman in the state semifinals.

The week-long break will come in handy because the Tigers (20-5) played strong defense against Spartans senior Courtney Schiffauer, limiting her to seven points in regulation and the Spartans to 31 points through four quarters.

“It hasn’t sunk in because I thought we had lost,” Moschella said, “but my kids played so hard. Courtney Schiffauer ran out of gas midway through the third quarter [so] I just challenged her. She just ran this basketball team to win.”

The Tigers led 29-26 late in the fourth quarter when Howland’s Allie Airhart was fouled. Her free throw miss gave Boardman new life with Schiffauer scoring a putback basket and making a free throw to tie the game.

“That [could] have put us up by five,” Howland coach John Diehl said. “That hurt us.

“Boardman girls have been to the regional finals before — you hate to make excuses but maybe we kind of panicked a little at the end there,” said Diehl, whose Tigers were playing in their first regional final. “I think we had three big mistakes at the end of regulation.”

Kelly Barzak’s basket with 52 seconds gave the Tigers a 31-29 lead. The Spartans responded with Moore scoring from underneath about 20 seconds later. After a Tigers turnover, Abraham launched a 3-point attempt at the buzzer that missed.

But in overtime, the junior guard sank 5-of-6 foul shots as the Spartans jumped ahead, 41-33.

“It felt amazing because I knew that if I made them, we were going to secure the win,” Abraham said. “I felt like I hadn’t done much offensively the whole game. Coach told me to keep shooting. I wasn’t frustrated, but my shot wasn’t there for me today.”

Moore scored half of Boardman’s 16 points in the first half and finished with a game-high 19.

“We had more energy during the overtime,” Moore said.

Moschella was impressed with how well Howland’s Megan Long guarded Schiffauer.

“They denied Schiffauer and they sagged [Alexa] Williams,” Moschella said. “That left Emily open a little bit and we were asking her to hit the 3.”

Williams ended her varsity career with 13 points, nine rebounds and two blocks.

“It really hurt when she picked up her fourth foul because we couldn’t stop Moore at all underneath,” Diehl said.

williams@vindy.com