MASSILLON — For the third straight year, Buckeye Central met Cornerstone Christian in the Division IV regional tournament at Massillon Perry High School.
For the second consecutive year, it was the Patriots who came out on top.
Cornerstone Christian used a stifling defense and strong offensive rebounding to build a 15-point halftime lead and then held off a late Buckettes’ rally to win the regional championship, 49-39, Saturday night.
The Patriots advance to the state tournament for the second year in a row, where they will face undefeated Fort Loramie on March 12 at 6 p.m.
“We were a little shellshocked first quarter, first half,” Buckeye Central coach Abram Kaple said. “We made some mistakes that we hadn’t made in some time. I don’t know if it was just the name (Cornerstone) on the front of the jersey or the magnitude of the game, but we just made some mistakes.”
Indeed, Buckeye Central (21-6) committed an uncharacteristic eight turnovers in the first quarter, 13 for the first half. That allowed Cornerstone (23-5) to ease out to an 11-6 lead in the first period despite hitting just four of 16 shot in the first period.
The Patriots increased the lead to 23-8 by halftime, holding the Buckettes’ to just two points. In addition to the turnovers, Cornerstone had 11 offensive rebounds. The two combined gave the Patriots 19 more shots than Buckeye Central attempted.
“Madison Cloonan had a lot of those (rebounds),” Cornerstone coach Lisa Stopp said. “She got in foul trouble, she came out and we started to lose our rhythm. When she’s out there, we kind of just enjoy watching her.”
Cloonan picked up her third foul midway through the third quarter and it seemed to invigorate the Buckeye Central offense. Taylor Ratliff scored eight of her team-high 15 points over the last 3:30 of the period. Cornerstone took a 32-17 lead into the fourth quarter.
“The game just kind of set in and we realized, ‘Hey, that’s another girls’ basketball team,” Kaple said. “They’re a phenomenal team to go to state two years in a row. But so are we — to be this late in the year and still playing — it just took us a little bit too long to believe that and have that confidence in ourselves.
“We’re supposed to be here, we belong,” Kaple continued. “We played hard, we got stops, we got defensive rebounds, and didn’t turn it over.”
The Buckettes chipped away at the deficit in the fourth quarter and got to within seven, at 46-39, on a basket by Claudia Pifher with 32 seconds remaining but they just ran out of time.
“(Coach Kaple) had a great game plan,” Stopp said. “I thought we could assert our game more onto them. That didn’t happen. So, hats off to them for making this thing a battle to the end.”
Pifher seconded Ratliff’s 15 points with 11 for Buckeye Central. Lexi Evak had eight points and nine rebounds in her last game for BC. Fellow senior Ally Green had three points.
“Lexi and Ally — for them to have 80-plus wins in their career, there’s a handful of people who can say that,” Kaple said.
Michaela Cloonan had a game-high 16 points to lead the Patriots. Aislyn Hurst had 13 points and Riley Stopp added 10. Madison Cloonan grabbed 12 rebounds.
“We return a nice core (next year) and we’ll get Kyleigh Brown back from her ACL,” Kaple said. “We have a couple of eight graders that we see a lot of potential in.
“We made it one step further than we did last year,” Kaple added. “We made a step. But what are we going to do to make that next one next year? For some of them, it will be their last go-round.”
Box score
Buckeye Central 6 2 9 22 — 39
Cornerstone 11 12 9 17 — 49
Buckeye Central (21-6): Shots 14-36; 3-pt. shots 4-14 (Taylor Ratliff 3, Ally Green); Free throws 7-8; Rebounds 29 (Lexi Evak 9); Turnovers 18. Scoring: Kendra Ackerman 1 0 2, Claudia Pifher 3 5 11, Taylor Ratliff 5 2 15, Ally Green 1 0 3, Lexi Evak 4 0 8.
Cornerstone (23-5): Shots 18-52; 3-pt. 2-20 (Michaela Cloonan, Aislyn Hurst); Rebounds 29 (Madison Cloonan 12); Turnovers 5. Scoring: Riley Stopp 2 6 10, Madison Cloonan 2 2 6, Michaela Cloonan 7 1 16, Aislyn Hurst 6 0 13, Kailey Tyna 1 2 4.