30°GIRLS' BASKETBALL - Big Red claim D-IV district
12:41 PM
Mar 08
2010
Mar 08
2010
By SCOTT SEITZ
Reflector Staff Writer
sseitz@norwalkreflector.com
LEXINGTON — This one was extra special.
The Plymouth Big Red, a team that battled overwhelming adversity all season, captured its first-ever girls’ basketball Division IV district title Saturday night at Lexington High School with a 57-51 win over Mansfield St. Peter.
The Big Red advance to play Canal Winchester Harvest Prep at 8 p.m. Thursday at Pickerington North High School in the regional tournament.
Saturday’s win, along with the entire season is dedicated to Plymouth junior basketball player Abby Finnegan, who was killed in an auto accident in December.
“It feels good,” said junior Whitney Jacobs, who scored six points and added four rebounds.
“This whole season is dedicated to Abby,” Jacobs added. “It’s good we did something all for her.”
Junior Haley Goth added, ““This means everything, it’s for Abby.”
Goth contributed four points and eight rebounds to the Plymouth cause.
“I can’t express it,” senior captain Molly Miller added. “I’m just very, very excited.”
Miller netted 13 points and chipped in five assists in Saturday’s win.
“I don’t know what to say, it’s amazing,” junior Bre McVey said. McVey had eight points, four rebounds and eight assists.
“This is very rewarding,” Plymouth coach Scott Speicher said. “This team has been through a lot this year.”
Sarah Shirey led Plymouth with 16 points. Nicole Lyons added eight points and seven boards.
The Big Red led 14-9 after one and 27-21 at the half.
Plymouth upped its lead to as much as 36-24 in the third, before an 8-2 Spartan run cut their deficit to 38-32 after three.
Each team scored 19 fourth-quarter points.
“We tried to weather the storm,” Speicher said. “We hit some big free throws down the stretch.”
Recently, McVey has turned from a scorer into a floor leader.
“Bre has been a distributor for the past six or seven games,” Speicher said. “Bre is all about winning. Stats don’t mean anything to her.”
Plymouth shot 19-of-40 from the floor and 14-of-20 at the line.
The Big Red has 34 rebounds and 14 miscues.
St. Peter’s was 17-of-53, 14-of-21, with 33 rebounds and nine turnovers.
Speicher knows Harvest Prep is a tall task.
“I think they are the No. 3 team in the state,” he said. “They are a solid ball club. We have some work to do on them.”
The Spartans’ McKenzie O’Brien scored 16 for St. Peter’s.
Shabree Rawls added 13 points and 10 rebounds, while Randa Payne scored eight.
Felicity Alt netted six points and grabbed 10 boards.
St. Peter’s coach Bill Tomsich summed up Saturday’s contest.
“From an offensive standpoint, they outperformed us,” Tomsich said. “From a defensive standpoint, we played a good game.
“I thought we did a good job controlling Nicole Lyons, who had 26 points and 16 rebounds against us the last time,” he added. “But Haley Goth did a nice job substituting.”
Tomsich said some opportunities might have slipped away.
“We had three of their key players with four fouls,” he said. “And we weren’t able to take advantage of that and that is my fault. We tried to attack them, but they did a nice job of not fouling out. If we could have fouled out one or two of those girls with four or five minutes left, it might have turned out differently.
“But hats off to Plymouth, they made their shots,” Tomsich added.
Boxscore
St. Peter 51
O’Brien 5-5-16, Rawls 5-3-13, Payne 3-1-8, Alt 2-1-6, Granter 1-2-4, Strang 0-2-2, Plummer 1-0-2. Totals 17-14-51.
Plymouth 57
Shirey 6-0-16, Miller 5-2-13, McVey 0-8-8, Lyons 4-0-8, Jacobs 2-2-6, Goth 2-0-4, Adams 0-2-2. Totals 19-14-57.
St. Peter 9 12 11 19 — 51
Plymouth 14 13 11 19 — 57
Reflector Staff Writer
sseitz@norwalkreflector.com
LEXINGTON — This one was extra special.
The Plymouth Big Red, a team that battled overwhelming adversity all season, captured its first-ever girls’ basketball Division IV district title Saturday night at Lexington High School with a 57-51 win over Mansfield St. Peter.
The Big Red advance to play Canal Winchester Harvest Prep at 8 p.m. Thursday at Pickerington North High School in the regional tournament.
Saturday’s win, along with the entire season is dedicated to Plymouth junior basketball player Abby Finnegan, who was killed in an auto accident in December.
“It feels good,” said junior Whitney Jacobs, who scored six points and added four rebounds.
“This whole season is dedicated to Abby,” Jacobs added. “It’s good we did something all for her.”
Junior Haley Goth added, ““This means everything, it’s for Abby.”
Goth contributed four points and eight rebounds to the Plymouth cause.
“I can’t express it,” senior captain Molly Miller added. “I’m just very, very excited.”
Miller netted 13 points and chipped in five assists in Saturday’s win.
“I don’t know what to say, it’s amazing,” junior Bre McVey said. McVey had eight points, four rebounds and eight assists.
“This is very rewarding,” Plymouth coach Scott Speicher said. “This team has been through a lot this year.”
Sarah Shirey led Plymouth with 16 points. Nicole Lyons added eight points and seven boards.
The Big Red led 14-9 after one and 27-21 at the half.
Plymouth upped its lead to as much as 36-24 in the third, before an 8-2 Spartan run cut their deficit to 38-32 after three.
Each team scored 19 fourth-quarter points.
“We tried to weather the storm,” Speicher said. “We hit some big free throws down the stretch.”
Recently, McVey has turned from a scorer into a floor leader.
“Bre has been a distributor for the past six or seven games,” Speicher said. “Bre is all about winning. Stats don’t mean anything to her.”
Plymouth shot 19-of-40 from the floor and 14-of-20 at the line.
The Big Red has 34 rebounds and 14 miscues.
St. Peter’s was 17-of-53, 14-of-21, with 33 rebounds and nine turnovers.
Speicher knows Harvest Prep is a tall task.
“I think they are the No. 3 team in the state,” he said. “They are a solid ball club. We have some work to do on them.”
The Spartans’ McKenzie O’Brien scored 16 for St. Peter’s.
Shabree Rawls added 13 points and 10 rebounds, while Randa Payne scored eight.
Felicity Alt netted six points and grabbed 10 boards.
St. Peter’s coach Bill Tomsich summed up Saturday’s contest.
“From an offensive standpoint, they outperformed us,” Tomsich said. “From a defensive standpoint, we played a good game.
“I thought we did a good job controlling Nicole Lyons, who had 26 points and 16 rebounds against us the last time,” he added. “But Haley Goth did a nice job substituting.”
Tomsich said some opportunities might have slipped away.
“We had three of their key players with four fouls,” he said. “And we weren’t able to take advantage of that and that is my fault. We tried to attack them, but they did a nice job of not fouling out. If we could have fouled out one or two of those girls with four or five minutes left, it might have turned out differently.
“But hats off to Plymouth, they made their shots,” Tomsich added.
Boxscore
St. Peter 51
O’Brien 5-5-16, Rawls 5-3-13, Payne 3-1-8, Alt 2-1-6, Granter 1-2-4, Strang 0-2-2, Plummer 1-0-2. Totals 17-14-51.
Plymouth 57
Shirey 6-0-16, Miller 5-2-13, McVey 0-8-8, Lyons 4-0-8, Jacobs 2-2-6, Goth 2-0-4, Adams 0-2-2. Totals 19-14-57.
St. Peter 9 12 11 19 — 51
Plymouth 14 13 11 19 — 57
Print
Facebook
Twitter
EmailTags
Similar stories
