By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

COVINGTON — Last season, the Versailles High School girls basketball team won five games. This season, they reached 15 wins and are heading to the District final after beating the two seed in Miami East, 47-30, on Feb. 20 at Covington High School.

Head coach Tracy White said the team wanted to get this win after falling to the Lady Vikings earlier this season. They showed that desire to avenge that lost on the defensive end.

“It feels so good for the girls to get a big win like that, just play solid for four quarters. We talked about our defense and having to be just completely relentless and being all over the floor. I felt like we did that for four quarters tonight,” White said.

For the first few minutes, Miami East started out with the lead. White said the team has played from behind to start each tournament game.

Just like they did in those tournament games, they started to settle down and gained a lead in the first quarter. After getting the lead, the Lady Tigers started to pull away.

In the second quarter, Versailles outscored Miami East 11-2. Versailles found ways to break through Miami East’s defense and extend their lead.

At halftime, the Lady Tigers had a 23-11 lead. White said the offense was able to make the extra play to put up points on the board.

”We made the extra pass for four quarters straight. It was, ‘If I’m open and somebody else is open close to the basket, let’s get it to them.’ It didn’t matter who was scoring or who was making that play,” White said.

Throughout the second half, the team also was able to beat the Lady Vikings’ trap defense. White said they knew they would burn a few timeouts against the trap defense, but the team regrouped and made the right pass or used the pass fake to their advantage to beat the defense.

Versailles didn’t let up in the second half. The defense was still putting pressure on the ball at all times and wouldn’t allow Miami East to get an easy, open look.

The team also did the little things right during the game. Each player on the team played their role to get this team win. It may not be noticeable or be recorded in the box score, but the Lady Tigers did everything they could to get the win.

“They’ve really done a lot of the things that don’t fall into the stat column. We could talk about everybody on the roster, but they’re doing different things that maybe people that are watching don’t even realize. They’re doing them and they’re doing them well,” White said.

To put this game on ice, Versailles went 8 for 12 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter. They were 18 for 26 from the free throw line in the game.

Junior Allison Schwartz led the team with 13 points. Sophomore Taylor Wagner had 10 points in the game.

Versailles will head to Springfield for the District final game and face Cincinnati Maderia on Feb. 25. Maderia is 22-3 on the season.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected]