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Lowellville rockets to win
Emily Carlson scored 20 points to lead the Rockets to another regional appearance.
HUBBARD — After beating McDonald 64-47 in the Division IV district championship game at Hubbard High on Saturday, the Lowellville girls basketball team is headed to the regional after back-to-back trips in 2004 and 2005 after.
Lowellville doubled its halftime output in the third quarter when it outscored McDonald, 23-6.
The Rockets (20-4) trailed McDonald (16-7) at the half, 29-23.
It marked the third time this season Lowellville beat the Blue Devils, their Inter Tri-County League Tier Two rival.
Thursday at 6:15 p.m., Lowellville will meet Berlin Hiland in a regional semifinal at Massillon Perry.
At one point in the fourth quarter, Lowellville was 14 of 14 at the foul line and had only one field goal.
The Rockets finished 21 of 26 at the line, while McDonald, the defending district champion, made 6 of 10.
McDonald experienced a point swing from nine ahead (23-14) to 17 behind (62-45).
The second-half turnaround was tied to a more relaxed Rockets lineup.
“Our young kids were very nervous, so I think halftime helped us settle down,” Lowellville coach Tony Matisi said of his girls, three of whom are freshmen starters.
“I think this big stage got to them a little bit.
“It took a good half for them to get settled in,” Matisi said. “Once we sat down at halftime and talked about what McDonald was doing and adjusting to it, we came out and played our ball in the third quarter.”
Matisi said that McDonald’s perimeter shooting hurt his Rockets in the first half.
“We weren’t staying with our man. We were gambling pretty much, so I told them to stay with their shooters.”
The coach, however, was pleased with his defense, especially in senior Chelsea Marrie and junior Jamie Hymes, who helped cover the prolific Joh’Vonnie Mosley.
“We don’t even try to shut her down,” Marrie said of the McDonald standout, who was held to seven points in the defeat after scoring 30 in each of the previous losses against Lowellville.
Marrie, Lowellville’s lone senior, addressed the turnaround.
“We needed to pick up our defense because we get nervous and we go really fast on offense,” Morrie said. “So we needed to show patience on offense and that’s what won us the game. That, and being able to play as a team. I think that helped us.”
Emily Carlson had 20 points for the winners, Taylor Hvisdak scored 14 and Marrie and Hymes had 13 points apiece.
Because McDonald’s defense concentrated on covering the perimeter so much, so the Rockets tried to get the ball in the middle and take it to the hoop.
“We made an adjustment on the offensive end to get the ball in the middle where it was wide open,” Matisi said. “I think we did that in the third quarter.”
Ari-Anna Williams led McDonald with 11 points, while Taylor Stanley added 10.
Coach Rob Hilbun said that Lowellville’s win was a combination of its defense, its five 3-pointers and its inside game with Hymes.
“She has great post moves,” Hilbun said of Hymes, but we really wanted to handle their pressure and I thought we did that the first half.
“But in the second half, it just wore on us and we made some ill-advised passes. But I’m proud of my seniors and we did exactly what we wanted to do except the passes at the end. That gave them [Lowellville a boost] and they hit some 3s and it snowballed from there,” Hilbun said.
“In the first half, I thought we did a great job with it [Lowellville’s pressure],” Hilbun said. “In the second half, we were making bad passes and they stole it.”
bassetti@vindy.com