WILLARD — Despite their lofty record and high seeding, Western Reserve coach Brenda Friend knew her team was in for a difficult test.
She was right on the money.
The Lady Riders entered the Division III sectional championship game against Colonel Crawford with an 18-4 record and a fourth-seed in the sectional.
Yet they faced all they could handle against the Eagles.
Crawford (14-9) led most of the first half and actually trailed just 36-33 with 1:48 left in the game. But the Lady Riders got a short jumper and three key free throws to edge the Eagles, 41-39.
But Friend knew that her large and talented team was in for a battle.
“I’ve been watching (Colonel Crawford) a lot,” Friend said. “We’ve seen a lot of film on them and gone to a couple of their games. This was the kind of game I expected. It was a lot rougher, I think maybe it was tournament-style officiating. But I expected that from Crawford.
“I thought we were two very well-matched up teams,” Friend added. “And (Allison Teglovic) and (Danielle Horsley) were two tough players to stop.”
The Eagles played outstanding defense in the first half, leading the Lady Riders, 12-4, after one period and trailing just 18-14 at the break. Crawford trimmed the lead to 26-25 after three frames.
Western Reserve appeared to take control early in the final frame, taking a 31-25 lead. But Crawford got three points from Horsley and, two free throws from Jenna Maddy and a Horsley free throw to cut the lead to 33-31 with 3:27 left.
Down 38-33 with 1:33 left, the Eagles got a big bucket from Maddy, and two key free throws from Rachel Ritzhaupt with 13.9 seconds left to pull within 41-37, and Horsley scored with eight-tenths of a second left to trim the lead to two, but that was as close as they would get.
The Eagles controlled the tempo most of the night, which CC coach Kyle Fenner wanted her troops to do.
“We wanted to get up the floor and make their big girls get up the floor with us,” Fenner said. “That’s what we wanted to do. We didn’t want to sit in a half-court game and have to guard all four six-footers, so we tried to push the tempo and get some easy baskets.
“We wanted to get in there, but we really wanted to beat them down the floor.”
Friend said that she didn’t want her team to run with the Eagles, even though her team does run the floor.
“We like to press, we like to run and we like to get some offense off transition,” Friend said. “But tonight, I really wanted to feel our way out, with all of the tension in the air in a final like that. I didn’t want to use our energy up like that and give them any layups. We respected their perimeter play as well as that. I didn’t want them to put it on the floor and beat us to the bucket.”
Neither team shot the ball well, as the Eagles made 15 of 53 shots (28 percent) and the Lady Riders hit 14 of 37 (39 percent), but the Eagles won the rebounding battle, 37-31, and committed just nine turnovers to 17 for Western Reserve.
“The effort has been there all year long,” Fenner said. “And this just didn’t happen in the last week. These kids went to work last year, and they just put in a lot of work. They’re great kids to coach, they’re great teammates and they do what you want them to do. And our effort has been there all year. There hasn’t been a game that I could say ‘they didn’t play real hard.’”
Horsley led the Eagles with 14 points and Teglovic added eight.
Six-foot post Cora Wyers led the Lady Riders with 14 points and Katie Hipp added 10, but Fenner said she was very pleased with the way her girls defended the talented Lady Riders.
“We’ve defended all year,” Fenner said. “I feel, for the most part, we defended. We did a nice job on the boards. We’ve been a great rebounding team all year long. And we have lived off those attributes. And that’s why we have won 14 games.”
Western Reserve advances to the 6:15 p.m. district semifinal at Shelby on Feb. 28 versus No. 3 seed Milan Edison.
Box score
Western Reserve 4 14 8 15 — 41
Colonel Crawford 12 2 11 14 — 39
Western Reserve (19-4): Shots 13-53; 3-pt shots 4 (Katie Hipp 3, Jenna Skrada); Free throws 11-14; Rebounds 37; Turnovers 9. Scoring: Katie Hipp 3 1 10, Isabella Zvara 0 1 1, Jenna Skrada 2 1 6, Isabelle Duchette 1 0 2, McKenna Woodruff 1 2 4, Emma Blankenship 1 2 4, Cora Wyers 5 4 14.
Colonel Crawford (14-9): Shots 15-37; 3-pt. shots 0; Free throws 9-16; Rebounds 31; Turnovers 17. Scoring: Danielle Horsley 5 4 14, Theresa Dzugan 2 0 4, Rachel Ritzhaupt 0 2 2, Jenna Maddy 1 3 5, Cierra Pfeifer 1 0 2, Kaylyn Risner 2 0 4, Allison Teglovic 4 0 8.