Local Sports

Monday, March 15, 2010

Girls basketball: Riverdale's bid for state falls short

By Nathan Inniger

Staff Writer

ELIDA -- In almost any sport, defense wins championships.

That was the case for the Minster girls basketball team Saturday night as the Wildcats defeated Riverdale 51-41 in a Division IV regional final at the Elida Fieldhouse.

It is the school's first regional championship since head coach Nann Stechshulte led her 2004 team to a regional title at Vandalia and eventually a state crown.

The Wildcats will head back to Columbus on Friday for a 1 p.m. state semifinal against Berlin Hiland, which beat Cuyahoga Heights 43-22 Saturday.

Minster (18-6), which played three post players that were at least 5-foot-10, held Riverdale (19-6) to only 24 percent (13 of 55) shooting from the field.

“It was not a good night not to shoot well,” Riverdale coach Maryann Holderman said. “Minster is a good team and I can't take anything away from them. Had we made some more of our shots ... .”

With its height advantage, Minster didn't give the Falcons many uncontested inside baskets and also created second shot opportunities with offensive rebounds.

“They altered a lot of our shots inside and that takes its toll on you,” Holderman said. “They had a lot of possessions where they shot the ball, they would get offensive rebounds. If we could have limited them to one and done ... .”

The Wildcats, who started the season 6-7 and were without honorable mention all-Northwest Ohio junior point guard Erica Fullenkamp because of an ankle injury, were able to get the win despite shooting only 9 of 25 from the free-throw line and committing 23 turnovers.

The reason was its dominating half-court defense.

“If you would have told me that we had some of those combinations out there and that we would have shot 9 of 25 from the free-throw line, I would have told you that there was no way that we would have won the game,” Stechschulte said. “But somehow we did, and it does start with effort and intensity on defense.”

Riverdale junior post Lacey Kessler, the team's leading scorer, was 5 of 21 shooting.

“You play against that kind of size and when you are not used to it, (Kessler) was kind of altering her shot going up trying to get a foul or trying to finish shots,” Holderman said.

Riverdale's other players were unable to get going either as the Falcons had stretches of three minutes in each of the first three quarters without scoring.

An 11-0 run in the second quarter gave Minster a lead of 24-13 and the Wildcats held steady with a double-digit lead until late in the fourth quarter.

That's when Riverdale, which started off the game with a 6-0 lead, made a last gasp run trailing 41-29.

Kessler and Ashley Fox each drove for layups and Sarah Huelsman made a free throw for Minster. Fox hit a trey from the wing and Kessler canned the first of two free throws to pull the Falcons within 42-36 with four minutes remaining.

“That is what these kids are about,” Holderman said. “They never give up, they always play hard.”

But Minster made 5 of 10 free throws down the stretch, got a Delanie Wolf lay-in and the Falcons were held to only four more points.

Wolf led Minster with nine of her team-high 16 points in the first half. She also had 10 rebounds. Kessler also had a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Falcons.

It was a great season for a Riverdale team that wasn't expected to make it this far into the tournament.

“I think these girls showed they had heart,” Holderman said. “They did everything they needed to do to get to this position.”

Holderman will miss a senior class that has played in the regional tournament in three of the past four four years.

“This senior class has been awesome ... Morgan (Spiegel), Christy (Fox), Ashley (Phillips). I couldn't ask for a better group,” Holderman said. “They have been leaders, they have been great role models for these kids and they have set a tradition for our school. We're going to miss them a lot.”

Minster (51)

Wolf 7-8 1-2 16, Wuebker 5-8 1-4 12, Dahlinghaus 2-4 4-6 9, Stechschulte 3-4 0-0 7, Huelsman 1-5 2-4 4, Clune 1-3 1-4 3, Gruber 0-1 0-1 0, Kemper 0-0 0-0 0, Schmiesing 0-1 0-2 0, Baumer 0-0 0-0 0, Slonkosky 0-0 0-0 0, Albers 0-0 0-2 0. TOTALS: 19-34 9-25--51.

Riverdale (41)

La. Kessler 5-21 7-9 17, Spiegel 3-6 2-2 9, A. Fox 3-14 0-0 8, C. Fox 1-3 1-2 4, Hicks 1-8 0-0 3, Le. Kessler 0-1 0-0 0, Phillips 0-2 0-0 0, Cole 0-0 0-0 0, Wise 0-0 0-0 0, Frey 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 13-55 13-13--41.

Minster 13 15 11 12 -- 51

Riverdale 11 6 9 15 -- 41

3-Point GOALS: Riverdale 5-21 (A. Fox 2-10, Spiegel 1-1, C. Fox 1-3, Hicks 1-3, Le. Kessler 0-1, La. Kessler 0-3); Minster 4-8 (Wuebker 1-2, Dahlinghaus 1-2, Wolf 1-1, Stechschulte 1-1, Huelsman 0-1, Gruber 0-1); .

rebounds: Riverdale 28 (La. Kessler 10); Minster 40 (Wolf 10, Clune 7).

STEALS: Riverdale 9 (A. Fox 3); Minster 7.

ASSISTS: Riverdale 6 (C. Fox 2); Minster 11 (Huelsman 4).

turnovers: Riverdale 15, Minster 23.

FOULS: Riverdale 22, Minster 16.

Inniger: 419-422-5151,

nathaninniger@thecourier.com

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