The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
North girls headed to regional final
CANTON » Is North girls basketball a team of destiny?
Probably, but not for the reason most observers might think.
The Rangers proved that March 5 in a 64-63 win over Solon in the first of two Division I regional semifinals at the Canton Memorial Civic Center.
With junior All-Ohio guard Destiny Leo shackled for much of the second half, North got outstanding contributions across the board, battling back from a 17-2 deficit to begin the game to advance to a regional championship game for the first time since 1994.
Senior Taylor Valaitis scored 11 of her 13 points in the pivotal third quarter, sophomore Avril Drew scored all eight of her points in the fourth quarter, and sophomore Abby Carter had a team-high 21 points – including two free throws with 16.6 seconds remaining – to give North the lead for good.
Carter then stole an inbounds pass in front of Solon’s bench with 1.8 seconds left to clinch the win and set off a raucous celebration on North’s side of the gym, while the far side of the gym sat stunned at the events that unfolded.
In addition to her 21 points, she also had eight rebounds, six steals and six assists.
“Basketball is a game of runs,” said Leo, who scored 19 points, 11 short of her season average.
“They made the first run. In the second half, we made our run.
“We had to come back and punch them in the mouth like they did us.” Did they ever. North (25-1) was left for dead early on when Solon made five of its first six shots — all 3-pointers — to open a 17-2 lead. From that point on, North outscored Solon, 62-46.
Down 15 at the half at 3823, the Rangers were near perfect in the second half, making 15 of 20 field goals (75 percent) and all six of their free throws.
In the fourth quarter alone, North made eight of its nine field goals.
“Basketball is a lot more fun and a lot easier when the ball goes in,” North coach Paul Force said.
The comeback was abrupt in the second half. Valaitis made two 3-pointers in the first minute of the third quarter. And when she and Carter hit back-to-back triples midway through the third, North only trailed, 42-37.
Carter’s coast-to-coast and-one to end the third quarter kept North within striking distance at 49-44.
Solon nearly lost the lead early in the fourth when Carter hit a 3-ball and Drew scored to make it a 52-51
game. But the Comets responded with an 8-0 run, starting with a jumper by Riyah Ali and ending with an Ali steal and layup.
But Carter hit a driver, dished to Drew for a basket and then drove in again to cut Solon’s lead to 60-57.
North’s first lead of the game came with a minute left when Leo drove in for an and-one, giving the Rangers a 62-60 lead. But Ali answered with a 3-pointer from the top of the key.
That set up Carter’s two clutch free throws to give North a 64-63 lead.
Solon ran a back-pick play for sophomore Hailey Weaver, who was wide-open at the end, but Carter stole the pass and spiked the ball high to the rafters as time ran out.
“It was pretty wide open,” Solon coach Trish Kruse said of the final play
she drew up. “We didn’t execute what we drew up. We had a chance.”
Kruse, a former standout in her playing days at Chagrin Falls, credited North for the effort in the second half. She said her team got “a little bit too happy with the 3” in the game and didn’t attack the basket.
After making 7 of 10 3-pointers in the first quarter, Solon was 4 of 20 the rest of the game.
“They just played harder than us,” Kruse said of the Rangers. “I thought we pressed a little bit in the second half and turned the ball over, and it kind of caught up to us.”
Force credited his team for not losing composure with the 15-point deficit to start the game.
“It’s four quarters for a reason,” Force said. “I’m
extremely proud of them.”
Weaver had a gamehigh 23 points to go with 11 rebounds, six assists and three steals. The Ali sisters – Riyah (12) and Minah (10) also hit doubled figures.
But it was the Solon defense that was hurt by North’s balance. Kruse said the game plan was to control Leo – which the Comets did for a lion’s share of the second half – but that others such as Carter, Drew and Valaitis made plays.
“There’s a lot of stuff they do to play defense on me,” Leo said. “A lot of the time, it’s about everyone else stepping up. Everyone stepped up tonight. Everybody made big contributions.”
Said Carter, “There are no roller-coasters, especially when we were down. We had more fire in us. We knew we had to keep fighting.”
When the Rangers emerged from the locker room, they did so to a throng of fans roaring applause in the program’s first trip to the regional tournament since 1994.
Now they’ll make a return trip March 8 to play Canton GlenOak, a winner over Aurora in the second semifinal March 5, in search or the program’s first state tournament bid since Bob Beutel was coaching the Rangers to back-to-back state berths in 1993-1994.
“I think every game to us is big,” Force said. “Every game is a Super Bowl.”