DEFENDING THEIR COURT

Western Reserve edges McDonald

Reserve trailed by 15 points in the third quarter before pulling out the victory.

BY JOHN KOVACH

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

BERLIN CENTER — The Western Reserve High girls basketball team demonstrated an ideal way to stage a comeback to win a big game Monday night: Apply defensive pressure and start making your shots.

Trailing by 28-11 in the second quarter and 45-30 in the third quarter, Western Reserve made it difficult for McDonald to score in the second half while getting hot offensively, rallying for a 56-55 win in the Inter Tri-County League Tier Two game.

McDonald coach Rob Hilbun credited Western Reserve’s defense.

“Their defensive pressure hurt us,” Hilbun said. “We couldn’t run our sets. And that’s when we went cold shooting and they got hot.”

After Lindsay Repp’s basket gave McDonald a 55-54 lead with 1:15 to go, senior Melisssa Burkey scored the game-winning basket with about 35 seconds remaining when she drove the right baseline and plugged a 10-footer.

“That was the biggest bucket I ever made in my life,” said Burkey, who finished with 10 points, including two 3-point goals. “[The play] was definitely nothing planned. We all were just trying to score. Whoever was in the open took the shot, and it worked.”

McDonald blew two golden opportunities to win when Joh’Vonnie Mosley missed two foul shots with 7.6 seconds left and Repp missed a 10-footer near the buzzer.

Western Reserve’s Matti Shahaden and Jessie Keeler each made three crucial goals down the stretch to fuel the comeback and set up Burkey’s winning basket.

The win vaulted Western Reserve (6-6, 5-1 ITCL2) into sole possession of second place in the league behind Lowellville (7-3, 6-0). McDonald (7-3, 4-2) dropped into third place.

“This was our biggest game,” said Burkey, noting that strong defense helped Western Reserve to rally even though the team was saddled by numerous turnovers during the comeback.

Colleen Kennechan led Reserve with 12 points while Sami Burton added nine. Burkey, Kennechan and Tori Korda added three assists each.

“Everyone stepped up,” Western Reserve coach Josh Scott said.” We focused on defensive pressure in the second half and that turned the tide in the game,

“I have been pushing our players to believe that they can play with anybody and they proved it tonight,” Scott said.

McDonald had a 32-20 lead at the half and was ahead by 47-36 entering the final quarter. The lead grew to 50-39 before Western Reserve reeled off a 17-5 run, led by Shahaden’s and Keeler’s three goals apiece.

“We made a lot of turnovers but we were shooting better in the second half and that kept us in the game,” Burkey said. “We came up with a new game plan at halftime to put more defensive pressure on them. Everyone stepped up.”

Mosley scored a game-high 21 points with nine rebounds to lead McDonald.

Taylor Stanley added 14 points, with two 3-point goals. Repp made 11 points and Callie Garland had five assists.

kovach@vindy.com