Hardin Northern’s Lainey Thomas (left) tries to get the ball away from Waynefield-Goshen’s Taylor Spencer during a Thursday night Division IV sectional semifinal at Spencerville. See more high school basketball photos at LimaScores.com.
Richard Parrish | The Lima News
SPENCERVILLE — A little revenge and a sectional win.
Last week, Hardin Northern downed Waynesfield-Goshen, 66-44, to capture the Northwest Central Conference crown but Thursday the Tigers exacted a little vengeance by downing the Polar Bears, 48-27, in the Division IV sectional semifinal.
With the victory, W-G advances to the face Minster in the sectional final at 4:30 p.m. Saturday. Hardin Northern ends its year with a 15-8 mark.
“We were very focused,” Tiger head coach Jocelyn Hennon said. “Usually I am Positive Patty and the optimistic one and I got on them and I said listen if you want a second chance at this and win this you have to focus. We watched a lot of our own film which was painful. We broke down … and our girls bought in and that sting of being NWCC runner-ups; we want revenge.”
In the loss to the Polar Bears during the regular season, W-G struggled on the boards and on defense but reversed that trend this time around. Four different Hardin Northern players scored in double-digits in that meeting but this time it was Bella Wilson who cracked that barrier with 18 points. Lainey Thomas and Katie Good were held to three points after scoring 28 in the last game.
“We seemed very flat and we couldn’t hit our shots,” Polar Bear head coach Brady Mast said. “I thought they did a nice job of containing our drives to the basket, not like last week were we were pretty successful and that opened a lot of things and tonight we couldn’t get it done.
“I thought defensively we were in it at halftime but couldn’t get it done. The four seniors put in a lot of work and they put us is in a good position and we are proud of what we accomplished this year. I am very proud of those four and really the whole group overall. It was a frustrating game tonight but you have to give Waynesfield credit.”
Hennon said this time around against Hardin Northern the Tigers instituted a new defense and it paid off.
“We executed our defense,” Hennon said. “We knew we had to keep them out of the paint because No. 1 (Lainey Thomas) and No. 10 (Emma Martin) played really well against us last week and they made a lot of drives and we knew we had to shut Wilson down because she shoots really well from the outside.
“We ran a new defense and it worked out really well and our girls really bought in and we played fantastic together. We were calm, collected and we passed the ball around to get our shot. We didn’t force anything and the huge thing is we had so many less turnovers this week. Our defense was phenomenal and it is what won us the game.”
W-G’s Tatelyn Faraglia, who scored 21 points and grabbed 17 rebounds the last time these two teams met, had another banner outing with a game-high 33 points and 24 rebounds. Tiger teammate Reagan Hutchinson added eight points and grabbed eight rebounds.
Hennon added that rebounding was also instrumental in picking up the win.
“We are lucky and we have only been outrebounded in one game this year and it was against Allen East and it was by one rebound,” Hennon said. “We have won the rebounding battle and that is something we take pride in. That is something we really work at. We know our strengths and our size.”
Both teams struggled to score early and after the first eight minutes, the TIgers led 10-5 and opened up a 19-10 lead at halftime as points were hard to come by in the first half.
It was a quick 6-0 run to open the second half that saw the lead balloon from nine to 15 and from that point, the Tigers never saw the lead dip under 11 points points.
St. Henry 59,
Upper Scioto Valley 16
In the second game, St. Henry cruised to a a win against Upper Scioto Valley.
St. Henry advances to play Perry at Spencerville at 6 p.m. Saturday.
Redskin Jaylnn Everman scored 14 points and Leah Lefeld added 11 points. For USV, Shalyn Lawrence scored nine points.
St. Henry improves to 15-8 and USV ends its year with a 4-18 mark.
.
Reach Jose Nogueras at 567-242-0468.
