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Champion falls to Garrettsville
RAVENNA
The Garrettsville girls basketball team will make its second regional appearance in three years after Saturday’s 55-39 victory over Champion in the Division III district final at Ravenna High School.
It was the end of the line for three Champion seniors: Erin Sindledecker, Molly Williams and Izzy D’Urso, who were part of a wins improvement four to eight after their freshman and sophomore years to 13 and 20 the last two seasons.
“I’m very happy for them,” Champion’s second-year coach Michael Cole said. “And, they’re district runner-up.”
Champion freshman Allison Smith drew a difficult assignment in guarding Grayson
Rose, who had game-high 23 points.
“She might be a freshman, but we’re not afraid to put her out there,” Cole said. “She’s physical and she can move, but she doesn’t have the size or experience [of Rose].
“A couple times, Rose got baseline and had some nice finishes. She’s a fantastic player, not just a tall player. She can do a lot of things.”
When Garrettsville tried to keep tabs on the Golden Flashes’ Abby White, Sindledecker found success.
Cole said it was one of the better games of the 5-foot-6 senior’s career.
“She’s an athlete and, within our offense, she has all the freedom,” Cole said. “Her hitting that 3-point shot [in the second quarter] was huge for her confidence for someone whose bread and butter is attacking the basket.
“She stuck out for us today, especially in the first half.”
Conversely, Champion felt the sting from Lauren Jones.
“She was the spark for them,” Cole said of Garrettsville’s 5-7 guard. She’s got a nice shot, but made some tough ones, too, basically, because she’s strong. In the second half, we didn’t have an answer for her.”
The Lady G-Men (22-4) will face Ursuline (15-10) on Wednesday at Cuyahoga Falls High School.
Rose had 23 rebounds for Garrettsville, whose 6-5 first-quarter lead disappeared when third-seeded Champion outscored the Lady G-Men, 21-3, during a spell spanning the late first quarter until the late second quarter.
It appeared to be a drought-to-rout scenario in progress at first because Champion was scoreless until Sindledecker made the Golden Flashes’ first points at 1:24 of the first quarter.
When Champion’s seven minute-plus run stopped, the Golden Flashes were ahead, 21-8 before taking a 21-18 lead at intermission.
“We’ve had some lulls in the tournament and have a bad quarter for some reason,” said Garrettsville coach Aaron Gilbert, now in his 10th season.
“They [Champion] did a lot of things that gave us trouble, but we just wanted to stay the course.
“I felt that they played as well as they could early and we, literally, played as bad as we could until about the last two minutes and then we kind of kicked it into gear and found ourselves. Sometimes, we get mesmerized by a zone [defense] and we were for a while. Then we started doing our things.”
Gilbert said that the turnaround entailed halftime adjustments by telling his girls that it’s their choice to pack it in or respond.
“They decided that they weren’t done,” Gilbert said.
To turn the tables for a final time, the Garrettsville had a 24-5 streak of their own to reverse Champion’s 24-15 lead into a 30-29 advantage for Garrettsville.