Friday, February 28, 2014
Photo
Ursuline’s Tanaya Beacham drives around Mary Ritter of Springfield on Thursday at the Division III district semifinal at the Struthers Fieldhouse. Beachum posted a game-high 27 points for the Irish, who downed the Tigers, 61-44. Ursuline faces South Range in the title game on Saturday.
By Steve WILAJ
STRUTHERS
It’s a simple sign containing three words — each letter alternating between maroon and gold.
However, the sign holds great significance, traveling to each game with the South Range High girls basketball team and looming over the Raiders’ locker room.
Composed by the South Range coaching staff, it reads ‘Are You Satisfied?’ on a white poster board, serving as a constant motivational reminder to the team.
“We made it after we won our conference because it seemed like in practice the next day, the girls were satisfied with that,” Raiders coach Tony Matisi said. “That’s all well and good that we won conference, but that’s what we’re expected to do. The thing you wanna do is continue to move on.”
South Range did just that Thursday night against Brookfield, showing it isn’t yet satisfied.
The Raiders dominated the Warriors from the outset, cruising to a 43-29 victory at the Struthers Field House in a Division III district semifinal. South Range (22-3) advances to play Ursuline in the district championship on Saturday.
“I think the sign really struck a nerve and hit home with them, so that’s been our mantra,” Matisi said. “We use it every day — ‘Are You Satisfied?’ – and it’s a neat thing we carry on.”
Morgan Czopur, who led the Raiders with 15 points, said the team fully understands its meaning.
“We just want to keep going and push it to the end,” she said. “We just want to keep winning.”
The key ingredient in its tournament success so far has been defense and South Range relied on that again, holding Brookfield to 20-percent shooting and forcing 16 turnovers.
The Warriors (16-8) scored in single digits in three out of four quarters, as the Raiders outscored them14-7 in the first, 7-2 in the second and 9-5 in the third.
“Their defense played great tonight with its pressure and forcing us to start our offense way out,” said Brookfield coach Shawn Hammond. “Our kids played hard, but ever since the first series when we had some people open and missed shots, we never got it going.”
Brooke Hiner led the Warriors with seven points. Matisi credited Raiders guard Jordan Youngs for setting the tempo defensively.
“I thought she just put so much pressure on their point guard and made them start their offense so high,” he said. “And that takes a lot of teams out of their offense.”
Brookfield’s zone defense also gave South Range some trouble, holding the Raiders to 35-percent shooting. But they received just enough scoring with 11 points from Starla Sharp, seven from Ashley Sharp and six from Youngs.
“We like playing zone better than man because we can space it out more and get shots off,” Czopur said. “I feel like we worked the ball pretty well tonight.”
Matisi knows South Range will have its hands full with Ursuline, especially with Fighting Irish forward Tanaya Beacham.
“She runs the floor, she doesn’t get tired, she contests every rebound,” Matisi said. “It’s gonna be a job. You’ll probably know in the first four or five minutes of the game what’s going to happen.”