Perry, NDCL advance in D-II

The Perry girls basketball team is on the verge of program history.

With a 47-21 win over West Geauga on Feb. 27 in a Division II district semifinal at Lakeside, the Pirates (22-2) tied the school record for wins in a season.

Top-seeded Perry will go for a new record March 2 against fifth-seeded Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin, a 50-30 winner over thirdseeded Harvey in the Feb. 27 nightcap.

A win against NDCL would give Perry its first regional tournament appearance since the 2003-2004 season, a team coached by Dan D’Amore that finished 22-2 as the only other girls basketball team to win 22 games in school history.

“We talked a lot in the tournament about finding a way to win and move on,” Coach Brindi Kandel said. “Survive and advance, that’s our mentality.”

Perry did more than survive and advance. It dominated the game defensively, not allowing West Geauga to hit double figures until the third quarter.

West Geauga clamped down on senior sharpshooters Claire Dolan and Jordan Schiano, but Kandel said guard Anna Sorine responded with a seasonhigh 18 points.

Last game it was Ellie Frazier (10 assists) and Emily Holroyd (11 points) who stepped up as supplemental scorers for the Pirates. This time it was Sorine. “We preached that since our loss last year in the tournament,” Kandel said. “Everyone on the court has to be able to score. The team chemistry, I think, is starting to peak right now.”

The district final will be a rematch of an early-season game against NDCL, won by the Pirates, 52-18. But Kandel warned her team cannot look past the vastly improved Lions.

“I think since we saw them at the beginning of the season, they’ve improved a lot,” she said.

“We’re going to be in for a battle on Thursday night.”