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Girard survives as Ridge misfires
By Steve Wilaj
GIRARD
Mineral Ridge coach John Matisi kept it nice and simple.
Explaining what hounded his team in a 45-42 Division III sectional final loss at Girard on Saturday, Matisi certainly didn’t over-analyze the contest.
“Sometimes you just have to make a shot,” he said. “And we just couldn’t make enough today.”
The fifth-seeded Rams missed two potential game-tying 3-pointers in the final 20 seconds. In turn, the third-seeded Indians survived and advanced to a district semifinal against Brookfield at 7:45 p.m. on Wednesday at the Struthers Field House.
Dakota Naples paced Girard (19-4) with 15 points and Makayla Trebella had 13.
“I knew it would be a real hard-fought game,” Indians coach Andy Saxon said. “Like I told the kids, we don’t have any seniors and they have five seniors. And when you’re a senior, it’s your last chance. So they’re gonna be playing hard and aggressive.
“They did exactly the things we worked on. They’re a good team and we’re a good team and it came down to the last seven seconds.”
First though, Mineral Ridge (14-7) battled back from a slow start to cut its deficit to three, 33-30, heading into the final quarter.
After a back-and-forth opening to the quarter, a layup by Trebella pushed Girard’s lead to 39-36 with four minutes remaining.
Following a free throw by the Rams’ Brenna Miner and a layup by Girard’s Camille Stoffick, two foul shots by Naples with 59 seconds left made it 43-37.
Ridge’s Peyton Allen then converted a three-point play, the Indians’ Olivia Ciminero connected on two free throws and Miner converted a layup with 19 seconds left to make it 45-42 and set up the Rams’ final 3-point attempts.
“It was a game of spurts,” Saxon said. “We turned the ball over and they turned it over. But I thought we did pretty well defensively.”
Ridge’s final miss came off of an inbounds play with seven seconds left. Prior to that, Alyssa Harkins — who led the Rams with 18 points — couldn’t connect on a clean look from behind-the-arc after a Girard turnover.
“If we would have taken a timeout and drew it up, that’s exactly what we would have wanted,” Matisi said. “You’re just waiting to put a couple shots together to maybe take the lead. They forced us outside and took away our strength and we just didn’t make enough shots.”
Mineral Ridge finished 14 of 44 from the field, including 4 of 26 (15 percent) from beyond the arc.
Girard shot 15 of 40 overall as a team.
“We come out to practice everyday and work hard. Because of that, we come out in the games and do our best,” Trebella said. “We all work as a team and because of our teamwork, we got to where we are today.”
The Indians will get its third shot at Brookfield after losing twice to the Warriors in the regular season.