VANDALIA – It was a rematch of last season’s District Championship between Mississinawa Valley and Legacy Christian. They went head-to-head again in the Regional Semi-Final and the Blackhawks made it two in row by defeating the Knights 42-30 to earn their first ever trip to the Elite Eight.
Mississinawa Valley struck first with a fielder from Paige Emrick, followed by Taylee Woodbury on a three-ball to go up 5-0 at the five-minute mark.
After that score Legacy was determined to cut the head off the snake by applying physical pressure on point guard Taylee Woodbury suffocating her no matter where she went at times sending two and three defenders not allowing her to get into an offensive mode.
Their defense held Woodbury scoreless for the rest of the first quarter, all of the second, third, and part of the fourth … and held her to just 7 points for the entire game – leaving a big hole in the offensive attack for Mississinawa.
But all-season Blackhawks coach Michael Paige has said if they want to take away certain players they have other capable scorers, and they would need it.
Legacy battled back and tied the game at five, then jumped ahead 10-5 by 4:18 of the first quarter.
Paige Emrick made 1-of-2 free throws and followed up with a triple to narrow the lead to 10-9 and then Brooklyn Seubert got in the act with two straight fielders in the paint to give the Lady Hawks a 13-12 lead at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter junior guard Paige Emrick was the answer coach Paige was looking for as she seemed to be in the right spot at the right time – scoring off rebounds, from distance and on the break. In fact, she was the only Blackhawk to score in the frame and had 17 points in the first half alone to help Mississinawa Valley to a 24-14 lead at the break.
Brooklynn Seubert would play big in the both halves and she had a number of rebounds in that first half along with strong defense for Mississinawa drawing praise from coach Paige.
“Brooklynn’s a monster and the backbone of our team. She gives us some some nasty that we need. I mean, she’s down there, you know, getting beat up, getting grabbed, getting scratched, and she just keeps fighting, keeps fighting, and her attitude has gotten better all year long. And she’s a monster. Now she’s a big piece of our team,” Paige complimented.
But he also was happy with the play of Paige Emrick as well in the opening half.
“This is one of the things we were talking about all year when we said we have four girls averaging double figures. So, when you have a game where they’re focused on pressuring Taylee, there are other girls who can step up and score. And tonight was Paige’s night,” coach Paige said.
The defense also did its part by being disruptive in the second quarter making Legacy work hard and held them to just two points.
The Knights won the third quarter 9-7 with Seubert and Emrick scoring all seven for MV.
Legacy didn’t win 22 games for nothing, and they would bring another level of pressure in the fourth quarter speeding Mississinawa up generating turnovers to close the gap 31-25.
But when you pressure and gamble it leaves others open, and Woodbury would find Cora Hoggatt for a layup … but the Knights answered with a triple to cut the lead 33-28.
Woodbury finally broke her scoring drought with a lay-up in the broken floor at the four-minute mark.
Legacy again got to within five, 35-30 with three minutes to go … but Mississinawa didn’t wilt and withstood most of what was thrown at them, including the kitchen sink.
Much of the credit for that was due to the play of Cora Hoggatt who found herself in the position of handling the ball against the pressure in the back and front court.
“I thought we handled the pressure well. I mean, we got undisciplined a few times and had our turnovers … but for the most part, they handled the pressure well and Cora was a big help,” coach Paige commented.
“Funny story about Cora, she is actually left handed, but I guess they wanted her to be right handed, so they taught her to always use her right hand, which turned out to be a good thing where she can use both hands well, she’s ambidextrous, so she’s really good with her left hand too, So, about a month ago we ask Cora to step up and she started handling the ball against the pressure and it has just turned our team around,” Paige shared.
Down the stretch Emrick added a three ball for insurance, followed by a fielder from Seubert to go up 40-30.
With just over a minute to play Emrick went down hard on the floor and for nearly 10 minutes folks were holding their breath about her well-being.
Brooklynn Seubert turned in a double double with 10 points and 12 rebounds in win over Legacy Christian. (Dale Barger photo)
She was helped off the floor and play would resume with Woodbury finishing up with two free throws to secure a hard fought 42-30 win and the first ever Regional Final berth.
I caught up with Paige Emrick after the game and she explained what happened.
“I just went for the ball, we’re both getting aggressive towards the end of the game, and after I collided with another girl I fell and hit my hip really hard against the ground and it just hurt pretty bad. But I’ll work on it, and it will be better for this weekend. I’m definitely going to be ready to play in the next game,” Emrick explained.
Fresh off a big game where Paige scored 23 points that’s motivation enough to be ready and I asked her about her role of stepping up in a big moment.
“I think we were all ready for this moment. We knew they were going to put pressure on Tay … because she’s an amazing player, just like every single person on our team. But I saw the opportunities to score, and I was like, okay, I need to step up and do my part, and everyone else did theirs, that’s why we were able to get the win,” Emrick said.
Emrick who was a sophomore on last year’s district championship team, now wants to be a part of a team to make history again by becoming regional champions.
“It feels amazing to be going to the regional finals, for sure, and coach will definitely prepare us for this game. We just got to come ready to play as a team, just like we have been doing all year long,” Emrick concluded.
21-4 Mississinawa will face 23-3 Fort Loramie in the Regional Final game at Vandalia Butler High School on Saturday 3/1/25 at 5pm.
Score by Quarters:
LC ….12 … 02 … 09 … 07 – 30
MV … 13 … 11 … 07 … 11 – 42
Team Scoring:
LC: Allport 1-1-0/0 – 5, Graves 1-0-0/0 – 3, Combs 1-0-0/2 – 3, Solomon 1-5-0/0 – 13,
Sweeney 0-1-0/0 – 2, Drye 0-2-0/0 – 4; Totals 4-9-0/2 – 30
MV: Woodbury 1-1-2/2 – 7, C. Hoggatt 0-1-0/0 – 2, Emrick 4-4-3/5 – 23, Seubert 1-3-1/2 – 10 Totals 6-9-6/9 – 42
