TROTWOOD – A 60-foot 3-point basket, three minutes and a little bit of Tecumseh Lady Arrows luck helped oust the Greenville Lady Wave from OHSAA D-II tournament play.
“The frustrating part is, we’re right there, we’re so close, if we just make a few of those shots early,” said veteran Lady Wave basketball coach, Rachael Kerns. “People kind of counted us out and I don’t know if Tecumseh ever felt comfortable in tonight’s game.”
The Lady Wave jumped out to a 15-8 first quarter lead over the higher seeded Lady Arrows at the 1:25 mark before Tecumseh used a 6-1 run to close out the first with Greenville leading 16-14. Lady Wave post player, Megan Lind knocked down three baskets in the paint for 6-points, senior point guard, Skylar Fletcher had two driving layups to the hoop and 2 free throws for 6-points, Josie Camacho drilled a 3-pointer and Minaxi Pandey made a free throw to round out GHS first quarter scoring.
Greenville pushed its lead to 25-19 at 4:50 in the second with the Lady Arrows once again rebounding with a 15-4 run to lead 34-29 with time winding down on the first half when Tecumseh threw a 60-foot shot hitting nothing but net with double zeros showing on the game clock to give the Lady Arrows a 37-29 halftime lead. Pandey paced GHS with seven second quarter points including a trey, Gracie Thacker tossed in 4-points and Lind went 2-2 at the charity stripe.
“Give her credit for making that long shot there at the half,” Kerns stated.
Tecumseh took period No. 3 by a 16-10 score to lead 53-39 with three quarters in the book.
The Lady Wave battled back in the fourth quarter to close Tecumseh’s lead to 3-points bringing into play the 59-foot 3-pointer to closeout first half action. With time winding down Greenville was forced to foul sending the Lady Arrows to the line to secure the tournament win.
Thacker accounted for six fourth quarter points, Fletcher 5-points and Pandey and Camacho each with a 3-pointer.
“We had to play really well for 32-minutes and we played pretty good for 29-minutes,” Kerns said. “If we could go back and take three minutes out of that game and play really well I truly believe the outcome would be different.”
For the game, Greenville had 15 2-point baskets, Tecumseh 14 2-pointers, each team had six 3-pointers with the difference coming at the charity stripe where the Lady Arrows made 18-27 free throw while the Lady Wave was 8-14 tosses.
Six Lady Wave played their final game wearing the Green and White. No. 4 Lauren Wright, No. 5 Gracie Thacker, No. 12 Skylar Fletcher, No. 13 Minaxi Pandey, No. 14, Caydance Davidson and No. 20 Josie Camacho.
“Everything they did for us is exactly what you wanted as a coach,” Kerns said of her seniors. “They’re great leader, just incredible young girls. It’s why you want to coach. The seniors I have this year is why you want to keep coaching. Four of my five starters are seniors and they played some of their best basketball tonight. How exciting for them to get to go off on such a high positive note.”
Missing for all but the first three games of the season was 5’4” sophomore starting guard Avery Baumann due to a season ending injury.
“She has a very high basketball IQ so that’s going to help a lot,” Coach Kerns stated looking ahead to next season. “It’s just next man up and see who we can get ready in the offseason to get ready for next season.”
BOXSCORE:
TECUMSEH 64, GREENVILLE 56
TECUMSEH – G. Russell 19, C. Kottmyer 11, M. Allen 10, M. Moore 10, S. Russell 7, G. Garber 7 – TOTALS 14 18-27 6 64
GREENVILLE – M. Pandey 14, S. Fletcher 11, G. Thacker 10, M. Lind 10, J. Camacho 9, L. Wright 2 – TOTALS 15 8-14, 6 56
3-POINTERS
Tecumseh 6 (S. Russell 2, M. Moore 2, E. Garber 1, G. Russell 1)
Greenville 6 (M. Pandey 3, J. Camacho 3)
SCORE by QUARTERS
14-23-16-13 64 Tecumseh
16-13-10-17 56 Greenville
