SPRINGFIELD –Versailles unleashed an outstanding effort that defensively stymied Bethel-Tate and offensively found 11 players scoring to give the Lady Tigers a 72-21 Ohio High School Athletic Association Division III district championship.
With the score tied at 4 in the early moments, Versailles broke out on a 14-0 run to finish the quarter. Inside field goals from Danielle Winner and Liz Ording were complimented by a triple from Kami McEldowney to highlight the surge.
The Versailles defense limited nearly all offensive penetration into the lane by Bethel-Tate, and on the rare occasion that Bethel-Tate did get by a defender there were more V-Lady Tigers waiting on the ball.
The Versailles run carried over into the second quarter as the Tigers scored the first 11 points of the period, taking the score to 29-4. The V-Lady Tiger defense was superb. It was if they knew what play Bethel-Tate was going to run before it executed it. Versailles always had defenders waiting for where the ball ended up going.
“Our rotation on defense was the best it’s been all year,” Versailles girls basketball coach Jacki Stonebraker said.
In the final three minutes Bethel-Tate did manage a 3-pointer to stop the run but could score no more, making the half time score 35-7 in favor of Versailles.
In the third quarter Versailles began to feed the inside post players. Danielle Winner, Lindsey Winner, Liz Ording and Claire Schmitmeyer scored all the team’s 15 points. This underneath the basket dominance allowed Versailles to extend its advantage out to 50-15 and end all drama with eight minutes left to play.
“I felt like everybody played well tonight from the starters to the bench,” Coach Stonebraker said. “That’s what it takes to win these big titles, district, regional, to be able to go to the seventh, eighth, ninth girl on the bench.
“I tell the girls, take it one game at a time,” Stonebraker continued. “It doesn’t matter who that team is … if you don’t play your best basketball you might get beat. I feel like our schedule helps us out with that. Every single game we play we have to be on our ‘A’ game, or we might get beat that night.”
Versailles will face Badin in the first regional semifinal game at Springfield High School on Wednesday night at 6:15 p.m. Summit Country Day will face Baltimore Liberty Union in the second game.
