MASSILLON — It’s been said that familiarity breeds contempt. But in the case of the Buckeye Central Buckettes, being familiar with the Perry High School has bred success.
The Buckettes are playing at the Perry girls’ regional basketball tournament for the third straight year and they appear to be making themselves right at home.
Buckeye Central (21-5) got out to a nine-point halftime lead, then withstood a third-quarter surge by McDonald to win, 44-39.
A familiar foe, Cornerstone Christian — a 33-29 winner over Dalton in the first game of the night — will be the opponent in the regional final on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. back at Perry High School.
Buckeye Central guards Claudia Pifher, a sophomore making her second appearance at Perry, and Taylor Ratliff, a junior making her third trip, scored 36 of the Buckettes’ 44 points between them.
“Honestly, I thought they were kind of nervous coming into this,” Pifher said. “We’ve been here before, we know how it goes, we know this gym. So, that kind of gives us the upper hand and the confidence coming into this game.”
Both guards played key roles in the pivotal fourth quarter, particularly Ratliff, who made four of four free throws — two one-and-one situations — to hold off the Lady Blue Devils down the stretch.
“I knew that a lot was riding on this and Coach (Abram Kaple) has prepared us all season for this. We practiced free throws constantly. I just had to stick with what I knew and picture myself in our home gym and just do what I had to do.”
McDonald (22-3) showed nerves as might be expected in a first appearance. The Blue Devils hit only six of 23 shots from the field in the first half and eventual leading scorer, Maddie Howard was shut out in the first two quarters.
“We played a phenomenal first half and we executed, and we basically did everything we wanted to do on both ends of the floor, and we had a nine-point lead,” Kaple said. “And I honestly thought it could have been 13, 15 to some degree.”
Pifher scored 12 of her game-high 19 points in the first half to create the cushion the Buckettes would need heading into the second half.
McDonald got past the jitters in the third quarter and made a game of it, outscoring BC 13-4 to tie the game at 28-28 by period’s end.
“I thought we started to fight a little bit harder. We were focused a little bit better on what we needed to do coming into the game, in the second half,” McDonald coach Amy Dolsak said. “We’re young, we’re mostly juniors and a sophomore playing out there. And it’s our first time here, so obviously there’s going to be some nerves.
“But I thought we overcame that after while and started to play our game, Dolsak continued. “I just wish it was for a whole 32 minutes.”
Maddie Howard finally got on the board in a big way with nine points in the third quarter to lead the Blue Devils’ comeback — including a 3-point shot that tied the score heading into the fourth quarter.
“The Howard twins are phenomenal, they’re a tough guard,” Kaple said. “They can shoot it, they can both put the ball on the floor and finish with either hand. They’re a tough matchup and we knew that coming into it.”
The Blue Devils eventually grabbed their first lead since midway through the first quarter when Lucia Wolford hit a basket with 5:14 left to give McDonald a 32-30 advantage.
Buckeye Central did not get the lead back for good until a basket by Kendra Ackerman with 1:48 to make it 40-39. The Buckettes’ defense prevented any further scoring from there and Ratliff closed it out from the line.
The Howards led McDonald in scoring, Maddie with 11 points and Molly with 10, while Wolford added nine. Sophia Constantino grabbed eight rebounds.
“They’re competitors and our team’s never going to give up, no matter what the score is,” Dolsak said. “They stepped up and made some big shots to put us back in it and even got the lead at one point.”
With no seniors on the roster, have the makings of a return trip to the regional next year.
Ratliff seconded Pifher’s 19 points with 17, nine in the fourth quarter. Lexi Evak had eight rebounds.
“We have two all-Ohio guards on our team and in the fourth quarter, they showed why they are the best duo in the (Northern 10 Athletic Conference),” Kaple said. “Hats off to them because they work very hard.”
The BC mentor realized his team had beaten another good team.
“I thought we were really, really flat in the third quarter,” Kaple said. “And they didn’t do anything different defensively. But give credit to McDonald. They’ve won 22 games for a reason and good teams make runs.”
Kaple reflected on what a repeat trip to the regional final meant.
“It means we have on day to prepare for Cornerstone and we’re 32 minutes away from punching our ticket to Columbus,” the second-year mentor said. “At this point in the game, anything can happen.”
Box score
Buckeye Central 14 10 4 16 — 44
McDonald 8 7 13 11 — 39
Buckeye Central (21-5): Shots 17-39; 3-pt. shots 4-13 (Taylor Ratliff 3, Claudia Pifher); Free throws 8-9; Rebounds 24 (Lexi Evak 8); Turnovers 9. Scoring: Kendra Ackerman 2 0 4, Claudia Pifher 7 4 19, Taylor Ratliff 5 4 17, Lexi Evak 2 0 4.
McDonald (22-3): Shots 17-42; 3-pt. 5-15 (Molly Howard 2, Maddie Howard, Lucia Wolford, Sophia Constantino); (Sophia Constantino 8); Turnovers 7. Scoring: Taylor Tuchek 2 0 4, Lucia Wolford 4 0 9, Molly Howard 4 0 10. Maddie Howard 5 0 11, Sophia Constantino 2 0 5.