Lady Falcons soar to title

0

MINFORD — It wasn’t works of art at times indeed on Saturday, but some sophomore-centric Minford Lady Falcons soared high —and rapidly grew up in capturing a coveted Division III sectional championship.

That’s because — in a back-and-forth affair against 14th-seeded Peebles which featured five ties and seven lead changes — the Lady Falcons first erased a 22-15 third-quarter deficit with an 11-2 lead-seizing run over a span of five minutes and nine seconds.

Then, in the final half of the final quarter, those 11th-seeded Lady Falcons fended off the hard-charging Lady Indians —leading for the final four minutes and 15 tics, and ultimately staking a 46-42 triumph for the program’s first sectional title in four years.

All of the Lady Falcons’ sectional championships have occurred in the past four decades, as Minford won four in a row from 2016 thru 2019 —with their most recent of four all-time (1992, 1996, 2011 and 2018) district titles sandwiched in between five years back.

Minford raised its record to 15-8, as the Lady Indians —competing as a Division III program this season after many successful campaigns in Division IV — ended up at 13-10.

The Lady Indians only sported one senior in Lilly McFarland, while the Lady Falcons fielded no seniors —and sole junior Kynedi Davis unfortunately missed the year with an ACL injury suffered in a preseason scrimmage.

Thus, the regular seven of Minford’s rotation is all sophomores —and in finishing third in the rugged Southern Ohio Conference Division II behind champion West and senior-laden runner-up Wheelersburg, those same sophomores made sometimes those on-court, consistently yet costly, mistakes.

On Saturday even — they endured their half-court turnovers, missed shots from point-blank range, sporadic defensive lapses, and 10 missed free throws on 16 attempts.

Still, the young Lady Falcons found a way to persevere and win —overcoming a lot of in-game adversity, and a 24-point performance by Peebles’ Payton Johnson.

Minford’s first-year head coach Chuck Miller made no bones about his Lady Falcons’ miscues, but was overjoyed at his young unit undertaking the task at hand —and ultimately cutting down the nets.

“This is great. We want to be a program that builds on things and takes those next steps. So this was the next step,” said Miller. “We challenged these girls all week and we challenged them at halftime. In the second half, they did just enough to get it done.”

That second half followed a see-saw first 16 minutes, in which the Lady Indians amounted the opening five points on a McFarland three-point goal and an Angel Grey basket in the first three minutes and 15 seconds —before Minford muscled for the next nine points to end the opening canto, including Lexi Conkel’s corner-pocket three-pointer to take a 7-5 edge.

There were ties at 9-9 and 11-11, before McFarland’s second three gave the Lady Indians a 14-13 margin —which Peebles pushed ahead to 22-15, only a minute and 19 tics into the third quarter on a Johnson old-fashioned three-point play.

But aside from the aforementioned Indian markers, and three-pointers apiece by Lydia Maddox in the third and Abigail Smalley in the fourth and two twos by Caydence Carroll in the second, the junior Johnson was Peebles’ point gal.

She scored a half-dozen deuces and meshed 12-of-15 free throws —trying to keep the Lady Indians involved as Minford never trailed in the final 4:15.

In fact, Johnson’s personal parade to the free-throw line was all the Lady Indians’ attempts.

Miller said the five-foot and 10-inch Maggie Risner made Johnson work with scoring and handling the basketball.

“Even though the Johnson girl had 24 points, Maggie Risner really made her work for all of those,” said the coach. “All they really ran in the fourth quarter and the last couple minutes of the third was that double screen up top and they just picked. So we had our bigs hedge on those.”

Minford, conversely, took advantage of its size in the post, and got the high-post and low-post game going — with six-foot and three-inch Lindsee Williams and five-foot and eight-inch Marlee Pendleton.

Williams was indeed the Lady Falcons’ go-to girl, scoring five field goals in the opening 10-and-a-half minutes as part of seven total.

“The second half offensively, we ran a lot of that high-low action,” said Miller. “We were getting a lot of nice looks with Lindsee at the high post, and she made several shots. We were also getting the ball down low to Marlee. We also had some back-door cuts. To be honest with you, I think we were really nervous and it showed in that first quarter. We turned the ball over and weren’t aggressive. That’s what we were focused on, attacking the seams and attacking off the dribble.”

Williams went off for a team-high 16 points, as two of her baskets resulted in a pair of Lady Falcons’ leads — at 26-24 and 37-36.

“Lindsee really stepped up when we needed her to. She had a great second half. We had such an advantage in the paint. We wanted to get the ball in the paint and that’s why we went high-low,” said Miller. “When she got the ball, she made shots from the elbow, she made shots driving to the rim, she got a couple and-one attempts. That was the key to the second half.”

Pendleton, on four field goals including three with a free-throw split in the fourth, put back a rebound for Minford’s 39-38 advantage —and the final lead change.

Williams meshed a pair of foul shots to make it 41-38, as Pendleton answered a pair of Johnson freebies with a wide open bucket underneath —back-cutting nicely and taking the feed from Conkel.

Risner, who followed Williams with 10 points including a third-period three-pointer, split a pair of free throws to make it 44-41 with 14 seconds left —after the Lady Falcons withstood a Johnson missed three, and Conkel corralled the rebound underneath on the possession prior.

With a 44-42 Minford edge, Conkel sealed the win with 10 tics to go —swishing a pair of double-bonus freebies.

So yes, Minford made only six tosses —but all the half-dozen occurred in the final seven-and-a-half minutes.

“We shoot them (free throws) every day. We’ll keep working on them,” said Miller. “They almost got us today. If we make our free throws, we win by double digits.”

Conkel connected for her trey and a deuce in the opening period, as Ava Cronin in the second and Lexi Pendleton in the fourth accounted for other Lady Falcon field goals.

The Lady Falcons’ foul situation also increased as the game progressed —with Risner, Cronin and Conkel all finishing with four.

Still, Minford found ways to take leads —and fend off pesky Peebles.

Last season, as freshmen in a Division III sectional semifinal, these same Lady Falcons found themselves in a similar position —only losing to arguably an underdog Ironton team at the Falcons’ Nest.

Lighting against Minford, Miller stated, was not going to strike it twice.

“We’re a young team, but we’re not an inexperienced team anymore. But we are inexperienced in this environment. Everybody knows that the tournament is a whole other level. Even playing at home here. The tension, the pressure, ratcheted way up. This is a big moment for these girls, because when they needed to step up, they stepped up,” he said. “Now we’re looking forward to going against West for the third time.”

Indeed, Minford will face second-seeded and 22-1 West in Wednesday’s Southeast District semifinal —their third meeting this season as the Lady Senators swept Minford by a combined 16 points (37-27 at West and 47-41 at Minford) in their SOC II tilts.

Tip time is set for 6:15 p.m. at Valley High School.

The Lady Falcons were right there with West in those first two contests —and aim for the third time to be that charm.

“It should be a battle. We were close the first two times with them,” said Miller. “We know each other so well. They know what we do, we know what they do. We’re looking forward to a great game.”

* * *

Peebles 5 14 11 13 — 42

Minford 9 6 11 20—46

PEEBLES 42 (13-10)

Rylee Barr 0 0-0 0, Lydia Maddox 1 0-0 3, Lilly McFarland 2 0-0 6, Payton Johnson 6 12-15 24, Abigail Smalley 1 0-0 3, Caydence Carroll 2 0-0 4, Angel Gray 1 0-0 2; TOTALS 13 12-15 42; Three-point field goals: 4 (Lilly McFarland 2, Lydia Maddox and Abigail Smalley 1 apiece)

MINFORD 46 (15-8)

Lexi Pendleton 1 0-1 2, Maggie Risner 4 1-3 10, Ava Cronin 1 0-0 2, Baylee Hammonds 0 0-0 0, Lexi Conkel 2 2-4 7, Lindsee Williams 7 2-4 16, Marlee Pendleton 4 1-4 9; TOTALS 19 6-16 46; Three-point field goals: 2 (Maggie Risner and Lexi Conkel 1 apiece)

Reach Paul Boggs at (740) 353-3101 ext. 1926, by email at [email protected], or on Twitter @paulboggssports © 2023 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved

No posts to display