43
Western Reserve girls can’t reach Heights
Blue Devils’ season
ends in regional again
PERRY TOWNSHIP
The bar has been raised for the girls basketball program at Western Reserve High School.
The next challenge will be clearing it.
For the second consecutive season, the Blue Devils won their district to earn a spot in the Division II regional tournament at Massillon Perry High School. And for the second consecutive season, they were humbled in the semifinals.
Cuyahoga Heights held Reserve to a season-low in points and frustrated the Blue Devils on the way to a 28-13 win Thursday night. While head coach Steve Miller didn’t sugar coat the challenge his girls were facing, even he couldn’t have anticipated just how tough it would be.
“They’re in position, they’re physical, they’re fundamental, they don’t make a lot of mistakes defensively,” he said of Cuyahoga Heights. “The way I look at it is you had two teams that were almost mirror images of each other, but they were better offensively and they were better defensively.”
The Redskins (23-4) did their best defensive job on forward Aleah Hughes. The senior was held scoreless on only three shot attempts. She did grab nine rebounds and recorded two assists, but the Blue Devils’ leading scorer could never get comfortable.
“She’s versatile because she can shoot it and she can drive to create shots for her teammates,” Cuyahoga Heights head coach Al Martin said of Hughes.
“But I thought we did a nice job on her, making her be more of a playmaker than a scorer.”
All five of the Blue Devils’ field goals came from inside the paint and they were 0-for-8 from behind the arc.
“We don’t have as much offensive skill as them and they have a very, very good defense,” said Sydney Miller, who led the Blue Devils with seven points.
“They had a lot of long girls and a lot of girls that moved their feet very well. They had people all over the place.”
With frustration mounting on the offensive end for the Blue Devils (20-7), their defense kept them in the game for as long as it could. Cuyahoga Heights senior Jenna Stegmaier took over the game in the second half, finishing with 16 points, nine rebounds and four assists — outscoring Reserve on her own.
“She’s just about winning,” Martin said of Stegmaier. “Honestly, she tries to find a way to help the team win. And she’s been doing it for us for four years, so we’ve really been fortunate to have her.”
Miller has taken the Blue Devils to back-to-back regional tournament appearances in his first two seasons as head coach. They were overwhelmed by state runner-up Zanesville Bishop last season, 67-31, but Miller alluded to a few lessons learned in that experience.
This year, the season comes to a close with the same result — and maybe a few more lessons.
“I did feel that we grew up, I did feel that we played better and I did feel like the girls felt they belonged here a little bit more than maybe they did last year,” Miller siad.
While Hughes won’t be able to help her team clear the regional semifinal hurdle, she can take solace in knowing she helped get the program to this point.
“It’s definitely an accomplishment,” said the senior. “I know before it wasn’t that strong of a program. So working to get it back up to be something that people want to go to and support is definitely nice to have at our school.”