Bath’s Claire Foust looks for a teammate after grabbing a rebound against Shawnee’s Brynn Patterson during a Saturday Division II sectional final at Patrick Henry.
Jose Nogueras | The Lima News
HAMLER — Experience came through in the end.
Bath, playing Western Buckeye League rival Shawnee who was starting three freshman and sophomore, pulled away in the fourth quarter to record a 34-23 victory and secure the Division II sectional final title Saturday night.
With the win Bath improves to 19-4 and travel to district competition in Paulding and will face Liberty-Benton at 7 p.m. Thursday at Paulding. Shawnee finishes its year with a 9-15 mark. Liberty-Benton beat Defiance 64-20 in the second game.
This marks the 11th time this season Bath has held an opponent under 30 points and the Wildkittens held the Indians to their lowest offensive output this season.
“We always guard,” Bath head coach Greg Mauk said. “We hold people down. I don’t know what our defensive average is but it is low because we usually play pretty good defense and make it hard for people to run their offense and they turned the tables on us and made it hard for us to run our offense.”
Mauk gave credit to the Shawnee defense for limiting his team’s offense.
“They did a really good job in playing zone the way that they did,” Mauk said. “I thought our kids were a little tentative.That was the first time all year long we have seen a 1-2-2, really a 3-2, that was all spread out and it seemed were a little uneasy about it. I didn’t think attacked like should have.”
Bath’s Anne Oliver and Rachel Clark each had 12 points.
“We are a good shooting team and we didn’t shoot the ball very well,” Mauk said. “It is a different environment and all that stuff and we have been off for a week and that maybe plays into it but I am not making any excuses. I thought the Shawnee kids played really well and their coaches had them ready. They are down their best player and that is how good the Western Buckeye League is. People don’t understand that.”
For Shawnee Ania Pearson scored 12 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.
Earlier in the year, Bath beat Shawnee, 54-40.
“I am so proud of the way we played,” Shawnee head coach Rachel Rumbaugh said. “We talked about we wanted to win the boards and we wanted to win the hustle game and I think they gave all the effort that they had. We are young but we are ending this season on a high note. We went out and played hard and that is exactly what we asked. We wanted to do the little things on the defensive end and I think we did that.”
As the low score indicates, it was a defensive struggle throughout the contest as both team utilized a zone defense to fluster the other squads, however, early on it appeared Bath was ready to run away with this contest as they scored the first seven points of the game and Shawnee did not score its first points until 38 seconds left in the first quarter and it was 7-2 after the first eight minutes.
In the first quarter, Shawnee’s first five trips down the court resulted in turnovers.
As the Indians eliminated miscues, Shawnee, thanks to its defense, stayed close throughout the second stanza and at halftime, Bath held a 15-9 advantage.
Defense continued to shine for both clubs in the third quarter and Bath failed to expand on its lead and it was the Indians who were within four, 23-19, going into the fourth period.
An 11-2 run to open the final period allowed Bath to eventually pull away to secure the win.
Despite the uneven victory, Mauk remains optimistic about the team after capturing its sixth straight victory and heading to districts.
“Sometimes you have those ups and downs and you find out how resilient your players are because you have to have kids who are resilient and bounce back and we will see where our kids are,” Mauk said. “
Reach Jose Nogueras at 567-242-0468.
