CASTALIA (Crawford County Now) — Margaretta has a long history of success in girls’ basketball.
This year’s edition has not let that tradition down.
The No.1 seed Lady Polar Bears settled their Division VI sectional final with Bucyrus early. Margaretta ran out to a 23-2 first-quarter lead and never looked back in downing the Lady Red, 54-33.
With the win, Margaretta (18-5) advances to the district tournament at Willard on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. The opponent will be Wynford, a 77-39 winner over Monroeville.
So solid was the Bears roster that the only points from starters in the second quarter were on 3-point shots from Kenadi Saylor and Ellyse Schaefer. Coach Ray Neill mass substituted less than two minutes into the second frame and no starter saw the floor after that.
“We turned it over to some of our younger girls to get some quality playing time in front of our home fans,” Neill said. “We’re still a little beat-up health-wise. We’ve got one girl who just came back today from injury, so I just wanted to be on the safe side today.”
While Neill had a personal reason for calling off the dogs early, he had another reason in his mind, which is rare in today’s sports at any level.
“All respect in the world for Coach (Brian) Seybert and his staff,” Neill said. “I didn’t want to go out of here with a 75-20 win on a running clock.”
Even with the subs most of the second quarter, Margaretta expanded the lead by halftime to 37-6. By then, eight different players had scored. The Bears’ pressure forced 18 turnovers to fuel much of the offense.
“The pressure was intense the whole time with them,” Seybert said. “We knew that coming in — we had to handle it well; we had to pass the ball well. It didn’t start out that way.”
Bucyrus was able to settle down in the second half and actually trimmed 10 points off the deficit over the final two quarters.
“We still had to play, and we still had to compete,” Seybert said. “We could have easily laid down. We challenged the girls at halftime. I thought our second quarter effort was a little better than the first. But the second half was way better than the first half.
“We still had to work for what we wanted to get,” he continued. “I thought we were more aggressive and a little more determined, getting our shots, getting what we wanted.”
Neill was happy with the way his team started the game.
“We made some shots early. We got after it,” Neill said. “We did some things we wanted to do. We got out healthy and let some younger girls have some fun.”
Seybert agreed with that assessment.
“Early on, they were hurting us in man (defense), hurting our press,” Seybert said. “So, I thought ‘We’ll go 2-3 zone’ and they just started lighting it up from outside. The rest of the way, it was man.”
The Bears hit five 3s, all in the first 10 minutes of play.
Bucyrus got the offense going in the second half. Senior Marissa Middleton scored nine of her game-high 17 points in the third period. The Lady Red also had 11 points in the fourth quarter.
Freshman Savannah Clark added six points and Malina Rowland finished with five. Seybert said an emotional goodbye to Middleton and Rowland, who played their last game in a Bucyrus uniform.
“We’ve got some girls that can knock it down. We’ve got a post presence with Cassidy Lane,” Neill said. “We’ve got some good pieces. We’re playing without Raegan Heck, who last year was first-team all-conference, first-team all-district, special mention all-state. We’re trying to get better without her and hoping we’ll get her back the next game or the game after that.”
Three players scored eight points to lead Margaretta. Ashlyn Kingsborough, Addyson Fitzhum, and Saylor. Only Saylor was a starter. Fitzhum also grabbed six rebounds.
Seybert was second to none in his admiration of Margaretta.
“I told the girls that’s the level we’re trying to get to,” Seybert said. “They’ve got a solid program.”
Box score
Bucyrus 2 4 16 11 — 33
Margaretta 23 14 8 9 — 54
Bucyrus (3-20): Shots 12-32; 3-pt. shots 3-13 (Malina Rowland, Karlee Shull, Marissa Middleton); Free throws 6-13; Rebounds 27 (Victoria Stang 5); Turnovers 28. Scoring: Karlee Shull 1 0 3, Marissa Middleton 6 4 17, Lillyan Butchko 1 0 2, Malina Rowland 2 0 5, Savannah Clark 2 2 6.
Margaretta (18-5): Shots 19-55; 3-pt. shots 5-23 (Ellyse Schaefer 2, Kenadi Saylor 2, Grace Paseka); Free throws 11-18; Rebounds 37 (Addyson Fitzhum 6); Turnovers 14. Scoring: Ashlyn Kingsborough 2 4 8, Lillian Belak 0 2 2, Julia Berg 2 0 4, Grace Paseka 2 0 5, Cassidy Lane 1 0 2, Ellyse Schaefer 2 0 6, Dani Grunden 3 0 6, Kenadi Saylor 2 2 8, Addyson Fitzhum 4 0 8, Taylor Sessler 1 0 2, Elliana Schaefer 0 2 2, Lilly Edwards 0 1 1.