SHELBY — A cold second quarter put Wynford in a hole it couldn’t climb out of here Thursday night.
After getting a 6-5 lead after one quarter the Lady Royals were outscored 18-2 in the second quarter by Margaretta, leading to a 37-25 loss to the Lady Bears in a Division III district semifinal game at Shelby High School.
“Defensively, we were prepared for every single thing that they did,” Wynford head coach Amy Taylor-Sheldon said. “Player for player we didn’t always match up the best. They hit some big shots and we did not.”
Wynford ends its season at 14-11 and Margaretta (19-6) plays Upper Sandusky for the district crown at 6 p.m. Saturday.
The Lady Royals got 8 points from Reese McGuire, one of four departing seniors. The others are Katie Wagner, Grace Stucky and Alexis Stevely. Stucky and Wagner grabbed 5 rebounds each.
“That second quarter was a dagger. We had to come out and have a great third and pretty much not make many mistakes,” Taylor-Sheldon said.
“We played hard. I didn’t think they got any easy looks. Part of it too is with (Kylie) Leibacher coming back, that’s exciting. I’m happy for her to be able to do that and we knew they’d have extra energy with her coming in.
“I thought our kids did a great job on her. We just missed a lot of shots. Their pressure, athleticism and speed was good. We did a lot of living and dying by the threes, and we didn’t shoot it well.”
The Lady Royals connected on 10-of-28 field goals, including 4-of-14 from three-point range.
Margaretta head coach Ray Neill said his team played strong defense.
“Maybe we had a little bit of district jitters in that first quarter not knocking down shots. Second quarter we put that run together and took care of the basketball well, knocked down some threes. We got that lead and then we just kind of played clock management basketball the whole second half.”
Leibacher, in her first full game since a fractured fibula in December, shared scoring honors with Jaelle Keller, each scoring 9 points. Eden Palomo, who hit two big threes, added 8.
“If you look at the scorebook, it tells you what we are as a team offensively; just well balanced,” he said.
“We wanted to come out and extend that lead a little bit in the third quarter,” Neill said. “We did that and again, our girls were tenacious on defense tonight and limited them to one shot most of the time.”
It was Leibacher’s first full game since the sixth game of the season.
“She was on a 2 and 1/2- to 3-minute time frame out there on the floor,” Neill said. “Sometimes she went a little bit longer than that. She gets better every day in practice.”
Leibacher, a 5-11 senior forward, was an all-Ohio candidate prior to the injury. She played 27 of the 32 minutes.
“We take pride in our defense and forcing turnovers (Wynford committed 12). Outstanding job defensively and a well-rounded offensive attack, that’s what we are,” Neill said.
Margaretta’s full-court pressure helped force those turnovers.
“With our schedule this year we didn’t see a lot of pressure. For a freshman point guard Maradath (Engler) averaged more assists than turnovers all year. She had a great season and brought a whole new dimension,” Taylor-Sheldon said.
“When you play a 1-seed you better be at your best and we weren’t at our best today. We’ve been in a really tough league. But we talked at the beginning of the year about what it meant to play like a champion, good old Notre Dame. What do you act like, what do you talk like, what do you play like,” Taylor-Sheldon said.
“Win or lose we want to be able to walk away saying that we played like champions and all the kids on our 9-player roster have done that this year.”
Reflecting on her quartet of departing seniors, she became emotional.
“It’s just hard for me. I had to fill out recommendations for seniors and in the little box it asks how many years have you known this kid. I had to write 13. What the Wynford community has allowed me to do being here as long as I have … My kids, my biological kids are devastated, because these kids are their role models, they’re their friends,” Taylor-Sheldon said.
“I had them in sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth grade. It’s a very special group of kids for me. This year they all played their roles perfectly.
“Grace’s role changed the most and she never asked why. Reese was one of the best lockdown defenders in the league. Stevely set records for threes. Katie was the center and improved as a 5-foot-7 post player and is very committed to what we try to do at Wynford.”
Wynford beat three league champions during the regular season and post-season.
Upper Sandusky (17-6) won the opener 44-34 over Clear Fork. The Lady Rams were led by Addy Newman with 13 points and Leah Kinley with 10. Velourea Stowers added 8 points and 11 rebounds.
Lilly Wortman had 9 for the Lady Colts, who close the season at 17-7.
Box score
Margaretta 5 18 10 4 — 37
Wynford 6 2 7 10 — 25
Margaretta (19-6): Shots 13-38; 3-pt. shots 6-19 (Lilly Edwards 2, Eden Palomo 2, Kylie Leibacher, Jaelle Keller); Free throws 5-8; Rebounds 27 (Raegan Heck 8); Turnovers 11. Scoring: Lilly Edwards 2 0 6, Jaelle Keller 4 0 9, Eden Palomo 3 0 8, Kylie Leibacher 3 1 9, Raegan Heck 0 3 3, Jennifer Patrick 1 0 2.
Wynford (14-11): Shots 10-28; 3-pt. shots 4-14 (Reese McGuire 2, Zoe Whitmeyer, Alexis Stevely); Free throws 1-4; Rebounds 18 (Grace Stucky 5, Katie Wagner 5); Turnovers 12. Scoring: Zoe Whitmeyer 1 1 4, Reese McGuire 3 0 8, Grace Stucky 2 0 4, Alexis Stevely 2 0 5, Katie Wagner 2 0 4.