NORTH ROBINSON — Loudonville’s Corri Vermilya is as good as advertised. Her sister, freshman Mya Vermilya, isn’t too bad and neither is senior Sophia Spangler.
The 5-foot-9 senior scored 19 points as the Redbirds downed Colonel Crawford 56-30 in a non-league matchup Wednesday night in Mac Morrison Gymnasium. The all-Ohioan added 7 rebounds, 3 assists, 6 steals and a blocked shot.
Vermilya, a finalist for Ms. Basketball who is bound for Ashland University, is averaging around 25 points per game.
The younger Vermilya pitched in 12 points, along with 4 boards, an assist and 2 steals, while Spangler contributed 14 points, 7 rebounds and a pair of steals, giving Loudonville (16-1) a three-headed monster.
Colonel Crawford (16-2) fell behind 13-9 after one quarter as the sisters combined for all the Redbirds’ points.
Lady Eagles head coach Zac Bauer knew his team faced a stiff challenge against the top-ranked team in the Division IV Northeast District RPI ratings.
“We were prepared. We told them in the locker room your efforts never waned, your attitude never turned, and your mental focus was there the whole time,” Bauer said.
“In a game like this, which is non-league against a quality opponent, that’s ultimately what you want. We want to get better, and we were tested tonight, and we did get better. We’ll see how much better we get in the coming days.”
Crawford trailed 33-22 at halftime and made just 9-of-42 field goal attempts.
“We can’t make shots. We always tell the kids we aren’t asking you to make shots. We’re asking you to take good shots with the belief that they’ll go in. We continually did that tonight and defensively we were OK when it was a half-court game. When we turned it over, they turned turnovers into layups,” Bauer said.
The Lady Eagles committed 23 turnovers to Loudonville’s 15.
Mira Holt led the team with 10 points and 8 rebounds. Gabby Roston netted 6 points and 4 rebounds, Allison Weithman 5 points and 3 boards and Lexi Duré 5 rebounds.
Head coach Tyler Bates said he was nervous this week.
“It’s great to go play games against good teams. But we needed to see how much we’d grow from that loss (to Warrensville Heights 67-51 last week). If you go and get beat up and don’t grow from it, it’s really not great,” Bates said.
“Crawford is another really good team and they made us work for everything. They had everything scouted that we run and I’m just proud of us for playing hard for four quarters.”
Corri Vermilya got into foul trouble and exited with 2:10 in the third quarter after picking up her fourth foul. She returned midway through the fourth quarter.
“We had to play a couple games without her last year when she broke her foot. Anytime we extend that lead with Corri or Sophia or any of our starters on the bench, it’s exciting as a coach,” Bates said.
The balanced scoring and depth of Loudonville make it a dangerous opponent.
“We have 7 or 8 girls that we think could start for most teams. They’ve been selfless. They allow us to bring them in off the bench and when we do, we usually ratchet things up a little bit.”
Bauer agreed.
“They got 19, 14 and 12 and that’s a great balance. That’s what you get playing a team at a high level. That’s what good teams do. We’ve been fortunate to do some of that on our own. But tonight, it wasn’t our night offensively,” he said.
“We tried some things against her (Corri) that we tried to show on and off. Making her give it up when she was in a ball screen situation or hand-off situation. You got to give credit to Spangler for taking advantage of that. She’s a really good rim finisher.”
The game was scheduled late when Monroeville and Mansfield Christian agreed to play one another rather than Crawford and Loudonville, respectively, as planned.
“This was awesome tonight. It was a packed house. It felt like a tournament game with two teams that have goals down the road,” Bates said.
Colonel Crawford travels to Seneca East Friday. The Lady Tigers are 5-6.
“That’s a very important game for us. That’s a league championship game for us like all the league games that we have left. A league title wasn’t won or lost here tonight, but it could be Friday,” Bauer said.
The Lady Eagles are 9-1 sitting atop the Northern 10 Athletic Conference, with Carey second at 8-3.
Box score
Loudonville 13 20 6 17 — 56
Colonel Crawford 9 13 4 4 — 30
Loudonville (16-1): Shots 21-43; 3-pt. shots 2-12 (Mya Vermilya 2); Free throws 12-16; Rebounds 24 (Corri Vermilya 7, Sophia Spangler 7); Turnovers 15. Scoring: Mya Vermilya 4 2 12, Corri Vermilya 6 7 19, Jenna Guilliams 0 1 1, Addison Wolford 1 0 2, Sophia Spangler 7 0 14, Alesha Felix 2 1 5, Sophie Lee 1 1 3.
Colonel Crawford (16-2): Shots 9-42; 3-pt. shots 2-13 (Allison Weithman, Lexi Dure); Free throws 10-10; Rebounds 28 (Mira Holt 8); Turnovers 23. Scoring: Gabby Roston 1 4 6, Mira Holt 2 6 10, Allison Weithman 2 0 5, Robin Ehmann 1 0 2, Lexi Rush 1 0 2, Lexi Dure 1 0 3, Lynae McKibben 1 0 2.
JV: Colonel Crawford 38-36.