Calvert holds off Arcadia, SE routs Chieftains

WILLARD – After a Division VII district semifinal doubleheader Wednesday night at Willard High School, two local girls basketball teams will be playing for district titles Saturday – Calvert and Seneca East.In the first game Wednesday, Calvert steadily pulled away from Arcadia, causing the Redskins all sorts of problems with the Senecas' 2-3 zone. After the first quarter was tied at 8, Calvert began to pull away as it got a balanced effort in the scoring column. The Senecas won 47-39, ousting Arcadia for the third straight postseason.Calvert (17-7) will take on Arlington Saturday at Willard at 3 p.m. It would be the third straight district title for the Senecas.In the nightcap, after a wild and hectic first quarter where Hopewell-Loudon was right with Seneca East, trailing 17-15, SE locked in defensively from there, outscoring the Chieftains 33-10 over the next two quarters en route to a 67-38 victory.In the SE victory, senior Alexa Snay poured in a game-high 21 points as she tallied her 1,000th career point. So now the Tigers have two 1,000-point scorers on the same team as Izzy Stockmaster eclipsed that mark a few weeks ago.The Tigers will take on Sandusky St. Mary Saturday at 3 p.m. at Gibsonburg. SE is looking for its third district title in school history.Arcadia's chances basically came down to how many 3-pointers it could make as Calvert's zone took away anything going to the basketball or anything in the paint. The Redskins (18-6) hit a few to begin the game as Addy Colman drained two in the opening eight minutes, but having no threat in the paint was costly in the end."We knew they were a really good 3-point shooting team with three players shooting around 32%, so our game plan coming in was to try to take those shooters away and let the middle open and see if they would take those shots," Calvert coach Aaron Sheets said. Our defense was good, but they did hit some 3s when they moved the ball well like the good team that they are."We knew they didn't have much of an inside game, so we focused more on their perimeter play. Offensively, our all-district player (Megan Rombach) scored only two points the other night and tonight she was in foul trouble a lot, so it's nice to win those games and get those contributions from others. We're tough to beat when we're balanced."After an Elyse Boes bucket to give Arcadia a 13-12 lead in the second quarter, Calvert closed the first half with a 7-0 run, fueled by a trey from Sofia Lee and baskets from Carleigh Meier and Mya Steyer at the buzzer.Arcadia continued to battle and keep the game close in the third and the early part of the fourth, but ultimately couldn't get enough stops on defense and couldn't score quick enough on offense to keep pace."When you spend two days working on stuff and when you play a bunch of teams near the end of the season that run a zone, then we get in this situation and we don't do anything we talked about," Arcadia coach Randy Baker said. "We just stand, we watch what's going on, we don't attack, we didn't square up to the basket with wide open shots we just didn't take … it's a little frustrating, but Calvert is a good program. They have some really good athletes. That really helps."Colman put her heart and soul into the game of basketball and she always busted her butt on defense. I feel bad for her, but life goes on. We were able to claw our way back after starting 0-2 in the league and we tied for second. We have some things to learn and we have some good players coming back and some coming up, so we'll see."Colman paced the Redskins with 14 points, while Liberty Voges added 10. Calvert got 13 points from Rombach, nine from Lee and eight apiece from Meier and Kate Coleman.After four minutes into the second game, it seemed like Seneca East (17-7) was going to run away with an 11-3 advantage over the Chieftains (9-15). But then H-L went on a quick 8-0 spurt behind a triple from Persilla Ragle, a Lily Brickner bucket and then a three-point play from Karsyn Snyder as H-L led 13-12.SE managed to regain the lead after a quarter – 17-15.In the second quarter after a Madi Smith layup, H-L gained a 20-19 lead after baskets from Ragle and Snyder, but then the Tigers ended the half on a 15-2 run."I think we jumped on them a little bit and won the first four minutes of the game, but credit to coach (Eric) Brickman, he had his girls ready for our press and they even got a lead 13-12 at one point, so I told my assistant coaches I think we're done pressing for the night, let's just play good half-court defense," SE coach George Parks said. "We adjusted there and did a good job of that. Our defensive effort was phenomenal in those second and third quarters."H-L had to adjust lineups a bit battling foul trouble as three players had three first-half fouls, plus Snyder left in the second half with an injury, so a real young squad was on the floor for much of the second half for Brickman."We adjusted to the speed, made a come back and we were playing super hard, which I'm really proud of the girls tonight for," Brickman said. "We ran into some foul trouble, so we had some different lineups in there. We were hanging in there, but then before the half they started making some shots and you have to kind of pick your poison with them because they're a really good team with two 1,000 point scorers."We got a little sped up there in the first half. We thanked the seniors after the game and any time you know the season is over, it hurts. I really appreciated the seniors, especially in my first year as their coach. But with these younger girls, we'll keep growing. Our first goal was to cut down a net … we did that. We wanted to win a district game, but we'll strive for that next year. We've definitely taken steps this season and gotten better."Overall, nine different players scored for the Tigers as Stockmaster added 12 points and Karli Foos ended with 10.But the highlight was the achievement from Snay."I've known these girls for six years, and having them in class and we were 1-22 that first year. These girls have continued to show up, fight and put in the work and I can't thank them enough," Parks said. "I don't know how many times someone can say you have two players score their 1,000th point in the same season, so that says a lot about their work ethic."I'm proud of Lexi and she knew it was coming. But I'm really happy she got it tonight."Ragle led the Chieftains with nine points. Calvert 47, Arcadia 39Calvert (17-7): Sofia Lee 3-0-9; Kaleigh Concepcion 1-0-3; Megan Rombach 6-1-13; Carleigh Meier 4-0-8; Kate Coleman 3-2-8; Mya Steyer 1-4-6. Totals: 18-7-47.Arcadia (18-6): Kate Seem 2-1-5; Liberty Voges 4-0-10; Addy Colman 5-0-14; Ryleigh Bostic 2-0-6; Elyse Boes 2-0-4; Anna Kuhn 0-0-0. Totals: 15-1-39.Calvert&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;8&emsp;&emsp;11&emsp;&emsp;14&emsp;&emsp;14&emsp;&emsp;– 47Arcadia&emsp;&emsp;8&emsp;&emsp;5&emsp;&emsp;17&emsp;&emsp;9&emsp;&emsp;– 393-point goals: Calvert 4 (Lee 3, Concepcion); Arcadia 8 (Colman 4, Voges 2, Bostic 2)Foul shots: Calvert 7-10; Arcadia 1-2Turnovers: Calvert 15; Arcadia 16 Seneca East 67, Hopewell-Loudon 38H-L (9-15): Persilla Ragle 3-0-9; Madison Holcomb 1-2-4; Peyton Wildhart 3-2-8; Lily Brickner 1-0-2; Mylie Alt 0-0-0; Erin Daniel 1-1-3; Karsyn Snyder 2-2-6; Emery Siebenaller 2-2-6. Totals: 13-9-38.SE (17-7): Cami Lantz 0-0-0; Jordyn Enders 1-0-2; Valerie Bordner 0-0-0; Alexa Snay 7-6-21; Aubrey Ritzler 2-0-6; Julia Enders 1-0-2; Madi Smith 3-0-8; Karli Foos 2-5-10; Izzy Stockmaster 4-3-12; Luella Burkholder 0-2-2; Lillian Burholder 2-0-4. Totals: 22-16-67.H-L&emsp;&emsp;15&emsp;&emsp;7&emsp;&emsp;3&emsp;&emsp;13&emsp;&emsp;– 38SE&emsp;&emsp;17&emsp;&emsp;17&emsp;&emsp;16&emsp;&emsp;17&emsp;&emsp;– 673-point goals: H-L 3 (Ragle 3); SE 7 (Ritzler 2, Smith 2, Snay, Foos, Stockmaster)Foul shots: H-L 9-13; SE 16-22Turnovers: H-L 26; SE 15