By TODD REED
News Leader Sports Editor
www.tnl-news.com
Minerva easily claimed a district title at Dresden last week, beating Indian Creek 58-42. In doing so, the Lady Lions accomplished a feat no other girls basketball team in the school's history has - winning a district championship and a league championship in the same season.
The undersized Lady Redskins had no answer for Minerva's center - 6'4 Chelsie Butler.
The junior dominated play at both ends of the court, pouring in a game-high 29 points, grabbing 12 boards and blocking four shots.
Taylor Maurer connected on three deep balls, on her way to 11 points. Kassidy Hardgrove added nine from her point-guard position, and senior Tosha Fields scored six points and was a dominant figure on defense, forcing turnover after turnover, while also grabbing eight rebounds.
Minerva left little doubt as to who was the better team, scoring the game's first seven points, and taking a 12-4 lead into the second stanza.
The Lady Lions stretched their lead to 15 at halftime, 30-15. Butler had 17 points by intermission.
The winners poured it on in the third stanza, going on a 12-4 run to stretch their lead to 42-19. Indian Creek would get no closer than 16 the rest of the way.
"Our first post-season goal was to win a district title and we accomplished that tonight," stated Head Coach Bruce Wright. "We knew there has never been a Minerva team win the NBC and make it to regionals in the same season. We wanted to be the first team to do so.
"I've been a part of four district championship teams and they are all special.
"I thought our defense was unbelievable tonight. Indian Creek wanted to do certain things and we shut everything they wanted to do down. They wanted to dribble penetrate and dish it to their block girl. Katie Mihok did a heck of a job on number four. We shut down their penetration and that's what makes them go.
"On the other end, we did a great job of getting Chelsie the ball. We also knocked down a few shots from the perimeter. We worked the ball, we pushed the ball and got them tired.
"Once we got the big lead, I felt we attacked when we needed to attack, and we ran offense when we needed to run offense.
"About the only negative was our free-throw shooting. We should have had a bigger lead at halftime."
Bri Kamarec led the Lady Redskins with 14 points, while Emily Mathieu and Ty Harris each had eight points.
Minerva (21-2) was to face West Holmes in a regional semifinals contest on March 9. The winner will battle either Columbus Eastmoore Academy or Washington C.H. Miami Trace at a site and time yet to be determined.
treed@the-review.com
Comments