The Portsmouth Lady Trojans captured a Southeast District Division III girls basketball district championship on Saturday, defeating Minford by a score of 54-17 at Waverly’s Downtown Arena.

Paul Boggs | Daily Times

WAVERLY — Pretty much all of Portsmouth filled the home side stands inside Waverly’s Downtown Arena on Saturday.

No doubt, the Lady Trojan following faithful didn’t want to miss something four complete decades in the making.

That being this talented and highly-touted Lady Trojan team capturing a Southeast District girls basketball championship.

Portsmouth, top-seeded squad in the Southeast District Division III tournament, definitely didn’t disappoint against the sixth-seeded Minford Lady Falcons —as the Lady Trojans blitzkrieged the Lady Falcons for the first 18 points, en route to rolling for a 54-17 victory, and the Portsmouth program’s first district title since 1985.

That’s correct —four decades worth of waiting to return to the true mountaintop were finally over.

“Been a long time,” simply said sixth-year PHS head coach Amy Hughes, with a slight laugh.

And from Portsmouth’s past, the future sure looks bright —as only Emily Cheatham is the Lady Trojans’ sole senior, and arguably the most decorated of players are the club’s sophomores and three freshmen.

Portsmouth sole senior Emily Cheatham (0)

Paul Boggs | Daily Times

But, the focus for now —with Saturday’s district title and Wednesday night’s Region 11 semifinal against West —is Portsmouth’s present.

It’s what the Lady Trojan fans came to see, says Hughes —her team now 20-5.

“I want to give credit to the community. I feel like the entire community was here and they were loud. I want to thank them. The support was wonderful,” said the coach.

What those fans saw was the Lady Trojans toss a defensive gem —18 unanswered points to begin the game in fact, from the opening tip until five minutes and 53 first-quarter seconds had elapsed.

Minford finally scored on three Lindsee Williams points —a split of free throws followed by a field goal at the 1:42 mark of the period.

The Lady Trojans, which allowed only a Baylee Hammonds third-quarter old-fashioned three-point play and a Lexi Pendleton fourth-quarter field goal for five second-half points, torched the Lady Falcons with their full-court defensive pressure —forcing multiple turnovers turned into Lady Trojan steals and transition baskets.

When Minford did get a shot attempt off, it wasn’t exactly of the best quality.

Minford’s only second-period points were two Maggie Risner field goals, a Hammond basket, and Lexi Conkel canning a three-pointer.

Portsmouth led 36-12 at halftime and 51-15 following three frames —as a Daysha Reid reverse layup enacted the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s running-clock rule, for the final 12 minutes and 38 seconds.

“The defense was just fabulous as you got to witness. It was all about our defense. We just completely shut them down, and I don’t know of any other way to say it. It was really fun to watch these girls get after it and play phenomenal defense today,” raved Hughes. “Played with a lot heart. Sometimes your shot can be off and certain things, but you can ALWAYS play with a lot of heart. And all nine of them today sure played with a lot of heart.”

All nine Lady Trojans played and six scored, including six-foot standout sophomore Sienna Allen —who outscored the Lady Falcons by herself in pouring in 22 points.

Portsmouth sophomore Sienna Allen (1)

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

Allen amassed seven field goals and 8-of-10 free throws, as freshman Keke Woods added eight points on four first-half field goals —and fellow freshman Hayven Carter canned a first-quarter deuce and a third-frame trey.

Portsmouth freshman Keke Woods (4)

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

Savannah Cantrell connected on a second-quarter three, and Bry Shannon scored the final Portsmouth points —making it 54-17 in the fourth for the Lady Trojans’ largest lead.

That 37-point final outcome, and even 36-point difference at 48-12 which got the running clock going, was doubled-up what the Lady Trojans did for the first 18 points.

Portsmouth followed up its 18-0 first-quarter kamikaze with a similar avalanche in the third —a 15-0 outracing in the first 5:45.

Of Allen’s 22, she tallied 10 in the third.

“We knew we needed to be able to withstand their initial push. If we could do that, we were confident we could settle in and slug it out with them. But they came out with such energy and aggression and just overwhelmed us. After we got down 18-0, it was pretty much impossible to recover,” said Minford coach Chuck Miller. “They are so quick and athletic. We’re an athletic team, but they take it to another level. That relentless pressure just wore us down. Way too many turnovers. Throw in the fact that our shots weren’t falling, and it was pretty much a recipe for disaster.”

Any utterance of a Lady Falcon first-half comeback came crashing down following Carter’s two that made it 20-3, and Reid’s back-to-back three-pointers in the closing 23 seconds of the first.

Her corner-pocket shot made it 23-3, then the junior standout beat the first-quarter buzzer —with an 30-foot bomb that made it 26-3.

Reid racked up 14 points —a dozen of which were in that first quarter, including three twos.

Both teams sported one senior apiece, as Cheatham will play on in her reserve role — and Minford’s Kynedi Davis will play collegiate volleyball at Ohio Christian University.

Minford sole senior Kynedi Davis (10)

Paul Boggs | Daily Times

“Emily (Cheatham) just plays so hard. In practice, she has the best attitude. As soon we put her in the game, she moved faster than anybody on the floor,” said Hughes.”She is just a wonderful kid.”

The Lady Falcons finished at 19-6, and won with West the first-ever Southern Ohio Conference Division III girls basketball title.

Aside from Davis, the remainder of the Minford roster returns for next season —where a district championship is already probably the expectation.

The Minford Lady Falcons are the 2024 Southeast District Division III girls basketball district runners-up.

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

“We had a tremendous season with 19 wins, a share of the league title, and now district runner-up. I have such a great group of girls. They work so hard. Do anything we ask them to do. They are so much fun to be around. I’m so proud of them. With 11 of our 12 varsity players back and a JV (junior varsity) team that only lost three games, we will be strong next year,” said Miller. “Kynedi is such an inspiration to the other girls. She worked so hard coming back from her knee injury (torn ACL before junior season). The other girls wanted to emulate that work ethic. Because of her injury, her role on the court was somewhat diminished this season, but her leadership was so important. I am a firm believer that you need upperclassmen leadership to be successful, and she provided that for the other girls.”

Minford senior Kynedi Davis (10) and Portsmouth junior Daysha Reid (3)

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

Meanwhile, Portsmouth presses onward —with the district championship.

“It feels great. It really does,” said Hughes. “It’s a nice reward for our kids for all the hard work they put in. It pays off.”

The Lady Trojans now get a much-anticipated tournament rematch with West (21-3), as West won its first-ever girls basketball district championship last season —edging Portsmouth in the final minute of the Southeast District championship game.

The third-seeded Lady Senators also punched their regional tournament ticket on Saturday in Waverly —winning over Federal Hocking 47-25.

West and Portsmouth play on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. —inside Logan High School’s Jim Myers Gymnasium.

Portsmouth freshman Hayven Carter (5) and Minford junior Marlee Pendleton (21)

Ed Litteral | Daily Times

The winner will return to Logan on Saturday for the Region 11 championship tilt —against either North Adams or Fort Frye.

* * *

Minford 3 9 3 2 —17

Portsmouth 26 10 15 3—54

MINFORD 17 (19-6)

Lexi Pendleton 1 0-0 2, Maggie Risner 2 0-0 4, Ava Cronin 0 0-0 0, Baylee Hammonds 2 1-3 5, Emma Carter 0 0-0 0, Kynedi Davis 0 0-0 0, Lexi Conkel 1 0-0 3, Lindsee Williams 1 1-2 3, Marlee Pendleton 0 0-0 0, Lainey Howard 0 0-0 0, Riley Kasee 0 0-0 0; TOTALS 7 2-5 17; Three-point goals: 1 (Lexi Conkel 1)

PORTSMOUTH 54 (20-5)

Emily Cheatham 0 0-0 0, Sienna Allen 7 8-10 22, Daysha Reid 6 0-0 14, Keke Woods 4 0-0 8, Hayven Carter 2 0-0 5, Bry Shannon 1 0-0 2, KK Mays 0 0-0 0, Katie Ankrom 0 0-0 0, Savannah Cantrell 1 0-0 3; TOTALS 21 8-10 54; Three-point goals: 4 (Daysha Reid 2, Hayven Carter and Savannah Cantrell 1 apiece)

Reach Paul Boggs at (740) 353-3101 ext. 1926, by email at [email protected], or on X @paulboggssports © 2024 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved