43
Champion girls have big-game experience
Golden Flashes meet
Chippewa tonight
By BOB ETTINGER
CHAMPION
Most of the members of the Champion girls basketball team have played in regional tournaments and even state championship games as members of the soccer and softball teams. None had reached those heights in a gym.
After claiming the Division III district championship Saturday at Lakeview, there isn’t much left for the Golden Flashes to accomplish, making it easy to wonder if simply qualifying for the Division III regional tournament will satisfy their competitive fires or if they want more.
“We’re wondering that ourselves,” Champion coach Michael Cole said. “It didn’t seem like that [Monday] at practice. We had a phenomenal practice. A few of them had even said we could go further. If the snow stays on the ground and we can keep their focus on basketball, we’ll be great. They’re still focused right now.”
Champion (20-5) will battle Doylestown Chippewa in a regional semifinal at 6:15 tonight at Cuyahoga Falls High School.
“This is the fifth straight year they’ve been here,” Cole said. “I’ve seen five games on film and it’s hard to tell from the film what they try and do. They do some things like us. They seem to be a little taller and we’ll have a little strength advantage. Our bigs are fast. They probably have the best player on the court, but I think we can match up well with them athlete-wise.”
Should they win, the Golden Flashes will play the Southeast-Elyria Catholic winner in the regional championship game at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday.
“I haven’t even checked them out yet,” Cole said. “We don’t have film yet. It’s all about Chippewa right now.”
With four girls — Emma Gumont, Abby White, Allison Smith and Brooke Whitt — who all average somewhere between 10 and 15 points per game, the Golden Flashes present an interesting challenge to defenses.
“I’m sure they’ve got multiple films,” Cole said. “If I’m them, I’d do the same thing I’ve been doing all along, too. They’ll look at us like we’re a good team. It should be a good battle. Other coaches, after games, have asked what they could do [to defend us]. They’ve tried to box-and-one Abby and Emma to beat them. If they’ve tried a triangle-and-two on Abby and Emma, Allison has gone on to score seven straight points. We tell the girls that whoever they’re guarding needs to go and screen for the others. You’ve got to have girls step out.”
Savannah Dodrill, averaging nearly four steals per game, will fuel the Champion defense.
“[Chippewa] has a few girls who fire away, but, to be honest, we’re not going to change a thing,” Cole said. “We’ll pressure them, trap them, try and get them into some bad spots. Savannah Dodrill, at the top of our press, makes it so we don’t even have to trap at times.
“If you’ve watched Bristol boys basketball, she plays like a Bristol boys basketball player. She’s diving on the floor, she bounces up and down the floor. I rarely ever take her out. There’s no reason for us to change anything. We got here doing one thing. We don’t think we’re overmatched. We’ll go ahead with what we do.”