Slow start no problem as Flashes oust Falls

March 2, 2017 at 12:05a.m.

By ERIC FORTUNE

RAVENNA

Newton Falls coach Mark Baker expected his Tigers and the Champion Golden Flashes to be hyped for their Division III district semifinal.

Baker felt that would lead to some errant shots and passes. He was right.

But the Tigers could not take advantage of some shaky shooting from the Golden Flashes, who eventually got their offense rolling in a 45-42 victory Wednesday at Ravenna High School.

Newton Falls (20-5) dictated the flow of the game and held a 6-1 advantage for nearly the first seven minutes. Then Megan Turner hit a 3-pointer late in the first quarter. That shot seemed to wake up Champion (19-5), controlled the second quarter, 20-12.

“We started pushing the ball a little bit more,” Champion coach Michael Cole said. “We were playing their pace. We want to get the ball moving. We started attacking more, too.

“Though we can attribute 9-4 as good for us because we played awful offensively. If we wouldn’t have been playing good defense, it could have been 13-1 or 14-1 and how were we going to react to that?”

Turner was big in the second quarter scoring seven of her team-high 15 points as Champion held a 24-21 lead at the half.

“It’s her birthday,” Cole said. “She better play good on her birthday.”

Abby White added 11 points and Allison Smith had 11.

The Tigers started to chip away at the Champion lead and took a 33-32 lead on an Izzy Kline bucket. Kline led all scorers with 22 points and 11 rebounds.

“She’s had some monster games against us,” Cole said. “We always key on her. She has a nice flow of the game. We really jump down on her a lot in the post. She’s phenomenal. There’s no doubt about that.”

But every time the Tigers needed the ball to bounce their way, the Golden Flashes seemed to make a big shot.

Champion built a 40-32 lead after a Turner 3-pointer in the early stages of the fourth quarter.

Again, the Tigers battled back and regained the lead, 42-41, on an Ashley Sembach 3-pointer.

The, on what both coaches called a hustle play, Molly Williams got fouled going to the rack and calmly made both to give Champion a lead it would not relinquish with 1:18 to play.

“I thought we chipped away at it,” Baker said. “We changed some things that we were doing. We took that one-point lead, but then a ball got bobbled. From there a hustle foul and they get to the line. That’s it. Just an unlucky bounce you can say.”

In the earlier game, Brookfield fell behind Garrettsville Garfield 18-4 after one quarter and never recovered. The G-men eventually won, 64-22.

Brookfield was nearly held scoreless in the second quarter until a Kenzie Drapola bucket went in right before the half. By that time, the Warriors were down 35-7.

“We didn’t defend the ball well,” Brookfield coach Marc Morgan said. “They were making shots. We could never come back from the run they made.”

Grayson Rose led the G-Men with 21 points and 14 rebounds. Tori Sheehan led the Warriors with 12 points.

Champion and Garfield will meet in a district final at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Ravenna.