Willard fill more: Bay bows out in regional

MANSFIELD » In the playoffs, you aren’t going to win many games losing the rebounding battle and shooting poorly from

the free-throw line.

Bay found that out the hard way in its regional semifinal against Willard on March 3.

The Rockets were outrebounded, 41-20, and shot 5 of 14 from the line in a 49-32 loss that ended their season in the regional round for the third consecutive year.

“We changed our defense a little bit, just to give them a different look, but they got rebounds and scored,” Bay coach John Curran said. “We had three or four stops in a row, and they rebounded the ball and got putbacks. So that was really disappointing. We just weren’t fundamentally sound.”

THE SCORE

WILLARD 49, BAY 32

The Rockets fell behind early, scoring two points in the first quarter and could never find a way to sustain any kind of offensive attack. Junior Julia Costas scored six first-half points to help pull Bay within six at the half.

But the Rockets shot just 1 of 7 from the stripe in the first two quarters, and were outrebounded 17-10, margins

that only got wider in the second half.

A Haley Andrejcak free throw early in the third pulled things to a one possession game, 20-17. But the Flashes answered with a 17-5 run over the final five minutes of the quarter to all but put the game out of reach.

“We missed some easy baskets, but even still we had it to three,” Curran said. “But then we gave up that 3 right at the end of the quarter. Even going in down six, we felt pretty

good after playing what we thought was a pretty bad half. But then we kind of replicated it in the second half.”

Willard’s Cassie Crawford scored half of her game-high 26 points in the half. The senior shot 5 of 10 from beyond the arc and was outscoring the Rockets by herself for most of the second half.

“We tilted our defense toward her just to try to make it hard for her, but she’s very skilled and had a really good night,” Curran

said. “So credit to her for playing well.”

Six-foot-1 junior Presley Feltner commanded the glass with 16 rebounds (six offensive), including several on one possession in the third that helped jumpstart the Flashes’ run.

Bay graduates five seniors, including Andrejcak, who scored nine in her final high school game, and Barbara Aldridge, who set the school’s single-season 3-point makes record in the Rockets’ district semifinal win over Firelands.