Wildcats on a roll again

Photo by: Nick Mays

Special to the Vindicator

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Katelyn Ardale (11) heads down court as Jenn Bjelac (14) plays defense Monday night in Struthers.

Photo by: Nick Mays

Special to the Vindicator

Photo

Newton Falls' Angela Giuliano (15) and Sadie Noling (2) battle for the ball Monday night in Struthers.

By Joe Scalzo

scalzo@vindy.com

STRUTHERS

If you want to know how the Struthers High girls basketball team overcame the loss of four starters to become a 15-win conference champion that earned the top seed in the Division II tournament, well, don’t ask coach John Grandy.

“They don’t listen to me,” he said after Monday’s 48-37 win over visiting Newton Falls, “so it’s not the coaching.”

Grandy will, however, compliment his players for not averaging their usual 20 turnovers a game.

Then he’ll gripe that the only time they foul is after he spent the last 30 seconds telling them not to foul.

And he’ll tell you that his best player, senior guard Katelyn Ardale, speaks three languages — and none of them are English.

And you know what the best part is? He doesn’t mean a word of it.

“I’m proud of this team,” said Grandy, whose team won the White Tier of the All-American Conference. “I’m proud they got the No. 1 seed.

“They do a lot of good things.”

The Wildcats (15-5) did a lot of bad things in the first half of Monday’s game, but they made up for it in the second, outscoring the AAC’s Blue Tier champions 23-11 in the second half.

“I thought we clamped down pretty good in the second half,” Grandy said. “We took away their inside game and forced them to shoot the 3.”

Ardale had 10 points, six rebounds and four assists, while Amanda Ditman added nine points, seven rebounds and five steals for Struthers.

Sadie Noling also scored 10 and Hannah Dubec overcame foul trouble to grab 10 rebounds — all in the second half.

Ardale, the lone returning starter from last year’s district title team, said this year’s team is driven by its doubters.

“I even heard stuff from my friends, about how we were going to have a bad year,” Ardale said. “And we lost a lot of good girls. But I knew we still had a lot of hard workers and we didn’t have to start over again. We just had to restock.

“I knew we’d do what it takes because we’re a family.”

Two of the Wildcats’ losses are to Division I teams — Howland and Fitch — while another (Poland) came in double overtime. Last week’s loss to Fitch could actually be called a good game, Ardale said.

“Now we know what it feels like to lose again and we don’t want that,” she said.

Newton Falls coach Mark Baker can sympathize. His team entered the game with just two losses and controlled most of the first half. But the Tigers didn’t score for the first seven minutes of the third quarter, allowing Struthers to take control for good.

“In the second half, we couldn’t get anything going,” Baker said. “That’s the way it goes sometimes.

“I think we can use this to refocus. We had high expectations going into this game.”

Senior Destiny Prusky scored 16 points for Newton Falls (17-3), although 11 came in the first half. Jenn Bjelac added nine points, six rebounds and three steals.

The loss aside, it’s been a terrific year for the Tigers, whose other losses came by three points to Warren JFK (which is 16-3) and one point to Champion (15-5).

And yet, Newton Falls garnered just the No. 5 seed in the Division III tournament.

“We’ve talked about that quite a bit,” Baker said. “It’s been a daily topic.

“It’s something we can use to motivate us.”