W. Reserve rallies to oust archrival Jackson-Milton

Western Reserve rallies to oust archrival Jackson-Milton

By Steve WILAJ

sports vindy.com

MINERAL RIDGE

Point blank, as the Western Reserve High fell behind 24-17 early in the second half against Jackson-Milton, Blue Devils coach Steve Miller asked his girls if they were done.

“Because I’ll go ahead to the locker room now,” he said during a timeout at the 6:44 mark of the third quarter in Saturday’s Division IV district final.

And right then, Miller saw something he liked.

“I saw that look in their eyes that said, ‘No, we’re not going down yet,’” Miller said.

Those eyes didn’t lie.

Claiming its second-straight district title, top-seeded Western Reserve rallied to defeat third-seeded Jackson-Milton, 39-38, on Saturday afternoon at Mineral Ridge High School. The Blue Devils (20-6) advance to play Cuyahoga Heights on Thursday at 8 p.m. at Massillon Perry High.

“That’s what champions do. Champions dig down and fight,” Miller said. “When you come back from that kind of deficit when the game is only in the 30s, that’s a huge deficit. That’s like coming back from 20 in a normal game.”

Jackson-Milton, which lost, 46-38, at Western Reserve on Feb. 9, opened up a seven-point lead after trailing 17-16 at halftime. Two 3-pointers from Kaitlyn Totani sparked the 8-0 run.

But the Blue Devils, who were paced by senior Aleah Hughes’ 10 points and eight rebound, out-scored the Blue Jays 16-8 to close the quarter and take a one-point lead.

“He said just keep your composure and play defense,” Hughes said of Miller. “We came out of the half not ready, so he just said that we have to get back and play defense.”

Western Reserve opened a 37-34 lead early in the fourth quarter on a layup by freshman Alexis Hughes. But Jackson Milton answered to take a 38-37 lead at the 2:30 mark on four-straight points from freshman Michaelina Terranova.

A layup by Aleah Hughes with 1:23 remaining regained a one-point advantage for the Blue Devils and proved to be the final score.

Jackson-Milton (18-8) received the final possession and came up short when Olivia Wolfe’s corner jumper missed the mark.

“That’s not the shot we called for, but she did what she had to do,” Blue Jays coach Pat Keney said. “All of the girls played hard all year, so we have no complaints.”

Terranova and Ashley Totani each scored seven points for Jackson-Milton. The Blue Jays had multiple possessions between Hughes’ layup and Wolfe’s missed jumper, but came up empty each time.

“The ball fell for them and they beat us by one point, so my hats off to them,” Keney said. “We had a couple shots at the end that didn’t fall in that could have changed things, but it didn’t happen. We’re just thrilled that we got this far and played that hard.”

Tori White and Alexis Hughes each added seven points for Western Reserve, which Miller said received a boost from its top player just in time.

“Aleah on the boards was a complete animal,” Miller said. “We needed to limit their shots and down the stretch when they missed a few, she came up with some loose balls and huge rebounds.”