SHELBY (Crawford County Now) — It had been 12 years since Wynford girls made it to a district final game.
The streak of absences ended for the Lady Royals on Wednesday night when they defeated Northern 10 Athletic Conference rival Buckeye Central, 57-29, in their Division VI district semifinal at Shelby High School.
Wynford will face Margaretta (23-1), a 54-26 winner over Lakota in the other semifinal game.
Coach Amy Taylor-Sheldon, whose teams had made district finals appearances a habit over her long tenure, was relieved and happy to be back.
“I think for a really long time, every year, our goal was to get to the district finals because you knew you’ve reached the top of your area,” Taylor-Sheldon said. “For many years, that was the norm.
“In truth, there’s been so many more competitive programs — New London, Ashland Crestview, and some of the teams that beat us — we win the sectional but didn’t get to the district finals. With the quality of coaching we have around here, it’s a lot harder than it used to be.”
The Royals scuffled a little from the field early, but so did the Buckettes. The difference came when the Wynford offense finally started clicking. Over the second half of the first quarter, the Royals turned a 4-1 lead into 15-4 and Buckeye Central (6-18) could never recover.
Caroline Sheldon put on a shooting clinic in the first half, scoring nine points in each of the first two quarters — totaling all of her game-high 18 points in the first half — as the Royals’ lead swelled to 33-11 by intermission.
“We knew coming in that this was going to be a challenge, but we could play with Wynford,” Buckeye Central coach Tyler Shade said. “But we’re going to have to make shots. It just didn’t happen tonight.”
The Buckettes not only shot poorly, but they also lacked volume as well, hitting four of just 14 attempts in the first two quarters.
Part of Buckeye Central’s offensive struggles were attributable to the Wynford defense, preparation, and containing Alyese Siefert, according to Shade.
“Offensively, Alyese has been that catalyst for us since game one,” Shade said. “Amy — talk about being a great coach — her, coach (Michael) Hurles, coach (Mark) Kocher do a great job in scouting and preparing, Alyese had to be at the top of their scouting report.”
Siefert was held to five points though she did grab seven rebounds in her last game for the Buckettes. Younger sister Megan Siefert led the team with nine points and Jenna Cianflone added eight. Macy Deppen also grabbed 10 boards.
Maradath Engler seconded Sheldon’s 18 with 13 points for the Royals. Engler added six boards. After a slow start to the game. Wynford finished hitting 20 of 46 shots from the field and six of 17 from 3.
“We just needed to be consistent,” Taylor-Sheldon said. “I thought we had some different offensive threats from the first half to the second half. The 3 and our defense fueled it.”
Shade believes this district appearance is a step toward the return to success for BC basketball.
“You can’t speak enough to what this means to the program and the youth that we have,” Shade said. “We graduate three great seniors, but as I look around the locker room, there’s a lot of really, really good basketball players in there wearing a gray Buckeye’s jersey. I feel like this is a good steppingstone for us in what is the new standard and try to get back to what Buckeye Central basketball has been for the last 10 years.”
Besides Aleyse Siefert, Deppen and Ella Collene played their last game for the Buckettes.
“They were freshmen the last regional title we had. They were in the program playing in an Elite 8 game,” Shade said of his departing seniors. “Then they kind of saw the fall back to earth for our program. They stuck with it. They never wavered. Their work ethic only increased from year to year to year.”
Shade noted they had to endure, not only struggles on the floor, but they also had three head coaches in four years, including Shade himself as a first-year head coach.
Wynford (22-2) moves on to a date with Margaretta, a perennial district and regional participant.
“There’s just a lot of things I’ve taken for granted over the years because I’m old,” Taylor-Sheldon quipped. “Getting back to the district, I took that for granted. When we won the sectional, in my mind, that should be like a check box. But some of these kids have never won a sectional (before).”
The veteran coach takes the optimistic view of the challenge presented by the Polar Bears.
“We’ve had tournament runs where we did knock off state-ranked teams, and we’re going to do our best to prepare and give it all we’ve got,” Taylor-Sheldon said. “We have nothing to lose. We’ll be ready.”
Box score
Buckeye Central 4 7 10 8 — 29
Wynford 15 18 13 8 — 54
Buckeye Central (6-18): Shots 10-29; 3-pt. shots 6-17 (Megan Siefert 3, Myli Estridge 2, Aleyse Siefert); Free throws 3-10; Rebounds 28 (Alyese Siefert 7, Macy Deppen 7); Turnovers 20. Scoring: Jenna Cianflone 4 0 8, Alyese Siefert 1 2 5, Myli Estridge 2 0 6, Harper Kantzer 0 1 1, Megan Siefert 3 0 9.
Wynford (19-5): Shots 20-46; 3-pt. shots 9-27 (Jenna Filliater 3, Caroline Sheldon 2, Maradath Engler 2, Megan Young, Ally Liming); Free throws 5-8; Rebounds 23 (Maradath Engler 6); Turnovers 6. Scoring: Rylee Robinson 1 1 3, Caroline Sheldon 7 2 18, Megan Young 1 0 3, Maradath Engler 5 1 13, Maggie Ridge 1 1 3, Ally Liming 1 0 3, Jenna Filliater 4 0 11.