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McDonald- W. Reserve round 3 on tap for title showdown
Division IV top seeds advance to final
By BOB ETTINGER
MINERAL RIDGE
Many in the know when it comes to Division IV girls basketball have seen it coming for months.
McDonald and Western Reserve appeared headed toward a clash for the district championship. The two Blue Devils’ squads cleared the final hurdles Wednesday and made that battle a reality.
“It seems since the middle of the season, everybody was penciling it in,” Western Reserve coach Steve Miller said. “They expected us and McDonald to be here on March 2.”
Second-seeded Western Reserve battled past third-seeded Brookfield, 48-37, in one of the semifinals at Mineral Ridge High School. Top-seeded McDonald outlasted fifth-seeded Jackson-Milton, 39-34, in the other semifinal.
“We knew it would be no walk in the park to get here, but we’re excited for the kids,” Miller said. “I think the fans of these teams will get to take part in a great district final. These teams know each other extremely well.”
The district final will be Saturday at 4 p.m. In the regular season, McDonald defeated Western Reserve twice.
“I think it’s anyone’s game,” McDonald coach Amy Dolsak said. “We’ll try to make sure we’re ready for it.”
WESTERN RESERVE-BROOKFIELD
Western Reserve (21-3) used an 11-0 run early in the third period in which Olivia Pater and Alyssa Serensky each netted five points to turn a 22-20 deficit into a 31-22 edge.
“We haven’t been in a lot of battles this year,” Miller said. “Tonight, we knew it would be one. I’m glad, under adversity, the girls continued to shoot.”
Serensky and Dani Vuletich paced Western Reserve with 16 points each.
“They were just too big and they shot the ball a little better than we expected,” Brookfield coach Ken Forsythe said. “Our defense did an awesome job in the first three quarters. We just couldn’t get the ball to fall in the second half.”
Brookfield’ Bailey Drapola left the gym with a consolation prize. With 24 points, she became the school’s all-time leading scorer.
Drapola scored 1,664 points in her career to surpass Morgan Bonekovic’s record of 1,636.
“That’s been one of my goals since I was younger,” Drapola said. “I knew I had a good chance. It means everything to me when it comes to the sport of basketball. I never doubt myself.”
Drapola also set the single-season mark with 494 points topping the mark of 487 she set a year ago.
MCDONALD-JM
The Blue Jays held McDonald scoreless in the third period to get within four, 29-25, with eight minutes left.
“Jackson-Milton is a defensive team, they gave us a little trouble there,” Dolsak said. “I thought they got in our heads a little bit.
“We made some careless mistakes. We’re young, you’ll have that. I’m proud of the way the girls stuck with it and held on until the end.”
Sophia Costantino finished with 14 points to lead McDonald while Courtney Mercer led the Blue Jays with 10 points.
Maddy Howard’s 3-pointer doubled what was a three-point lead to make it 34-28 with just more than five minutes remaining and Olivia Perry’s layup less than three minutes later turned a 35-32 advantage into a two-possession game at 37-32 with 2:41 to play.
“That’s been our whole season,” Jackson-Milton coach Pat Keney said. “If we would’ve come out in the first quarter and been more intense, we’d have been all right.
Playing a team like McDonald, you’ve got to play hard. In the second half, we played really well. All my respect goes to McDonald. They did what they needed to in order to win the game.”