×

Crusaders pull away early to top Toronto in 2A semis

STEUBENVILLE — The Catholic Central girls’ basketball team took advantage of a slow start by Toronto.

Catholic Central tallied the first eight points against Toronto, and the top-seeded Crusaders did not look back en route to a 64-37 victory against the fourth-seeded Red Knights in an OVAC Class 2A Semifinal Monday night inside the Mickey Barber Gymnasium.

“We started off playing at a good pace,” Catholic Central (13-7) head coach Rocky Bragg said. “I was proud of the girls for their pressure. We came out in a press before falling back into a 1-2-2. We jumped the passing lanes. We had good ball pressure.

“I have to give Toronto credit. They always play hard. They outplayed us at times. They caused us to make some costly mistakes. At one point, we had three or four turnovers in a row. We just had to slow down. We had to regroup. We talked about executing properly. We had too many turnovers.”

The slow start put Toronto behind the 8-ball from the outset.

“It did,” Toronto (8-11) head coach Rusty Hodgkiss said. “I think we came out too juiced up and too intense, and that translated to us playing hectic in the beginning.”

With the win, Catholic Central will take on No. 2 seed River in the tournament final at 4 p.m. Saturday down at the ECO Center in St. Clairsville. River advanced to the finals by defeating No. 3 seed Southern Local, 58-25, in Monday’s other semifinal.

“River won, so we are going to start to prepare for them tomorrow,” Bragg said. “River plays high-pressure defense. We are going to have to practice against that. We are going to have to be able to beat the press and score, or beat the press and set up our offense. We are going to practice against pressure all week to get us prepared for River.”

The Red Knights will now take on the Indians in the consolation final. Southern has defeated Toronto twice (48-33, 63-42) already this season.

“Southern has whupped us twice,” Hodgkiss said. “I haven’t seen River. Looking at their scores on MaxPreps, they are pretty good. They have lost to some really good teams. It is River. River is always good.”

The Crusaders scored the first eight points against their Jefferson County rivals to take an 8-0 lead before the visitors scored the next four to cut their deficit in half. Catholic Central countered with a 6-0 run to build a 10-point advantage before a 3-pointer pulled the Red Knights back to within seven. The Crusaders then scored six straight to extend their advantage to 13 (20-7) before the Red Knights tallied the final five points of the quarter to make it a 22-12 game going into the second.

The girls from the Gem City collected the first three points of the second to once again make it a seven-point game as the victors went nearly three minutes without a point.

“I thought there were points in the second quarter, I thought we played as well as we could play, but we just could not score,” Hodgkiss said. “We got good looks, we just had a hard time knocking down shots.

“I thought we played well in the opening of the third quarter, but I think the energy of playing in a championship type tournament wore us out. We were gassed in the middle of the third.”

The Crusaders, however, were able to right the ship as they ended up extending their advantage to 29-15 with 3:19 left to play before halftime. Catholic Central led 33-20 at the half.

“Mary Rohde took control of the game,” Bragg said. “She did a great job. She controlled the flow of the game, and the other girls fed off her.

“Mara Delaney was dealing with a scratched pupil. It happened early in the game. She battled through it. It effected her shot. She wasn’t comfortable. We told her there is more to basketball than shooting, and she went out and played great defense. She hustled. She did a great job.

“Everyone on the team contributed to this win. They all got a chance to contribute today.”

The Blue-and-Gold continued to play well in the third as a pair of free throws enabled them to increase their advantage to 20 points – 48-28 – with 2:17 remaining in the quarter. Later, a 3-pointer pushed the lead out to 51-29. The girls in white took a 52-31 lead into the fourth.

“Catholic Central presents a lot of problems,” Hodgkiss said. “The Rohde girl is fantastic. What do you do with her? We don’t have anyone who can guard her. Even if we did have someone who could guard her, she would drag them out. She can handle the ball like a guard. She can shoot the ball well.

“They also have Cherepko and Delaney and some other good 3-point shooters. You cannot just sit in a zone all day. We did what we thought was best by trying to guard them.”

A 3-pointer gave the victors a 61-33 lead in the fourth. Catholic Central went on to win by 27.

“I expected them to plan man-to-man, but I was not sure if we were going to see a full-court press,” Bragg said. “They did use a half-court press. At first, I was surprised, but Mary Rohde handle it for us. She controlled the flow of the game. She controlled the pace. We just had to slow down, set up our offense and run our half-court offense.

“Toronto plays hard. They work hard. They did everything you would expect from a team coached by Rusty.”

A trio of Catholic Central players reached double digits in points to lead the way to the victory. Individually, Rohde recorded a game-high 17 points, Natalie Cherepko collected 15 and Aurie Hoover had 10.

Jayna Reeves recorded a team-high 16 points to lead the way offensively for the Red Knights, while Tatum Derrington tallied 11.

“In October, no one gave us a chance to make it to this tournament,” Hodgkiss said. “I think this is the first time in school history we have made it. These girls should be proud of what they have accomplished. I know I am proud of them.

“Tatum Derrington has dragged us here. Jayna Reeves and Josie Dickinson never come off the floor. That has hurt us at times, but I am proud of these kids for doing the hard thing – playing basketball.”

There is a lot of respect between the two coaches.

“There sure is,” Hodgkiss said. “Rocky is a good friend of mine. “

With the win against the Red Knights in the books, the Crusaders now turn their attention to the Pilots.

“They remind me of Oak Glen in just how they play,” Bragg said. “The try to pressure you. They try to make you play faster. They want to force you to make mistakes, and we have been prone to do that. We have a fast team, and we can play fast. We just have to have things work in our favor. We have to slow things down. We have to be more organized.”

Toronto is scheduled to play East Palestine in a varsity-only game at 6 p.m. Wednesday at home inside the George J. Kunzler Memorial Gymnasium.

Catholic Central 64, Toronto 37

Toronto 12 8 11 00 – 37

Catholic Central 22 11 19 00 – 64

TORONTO (8-11): Derrington 5 0-2 11, Sapp 0 2-3 2, Bailey 0 0-0 0, Piatt 0 0-0 0, Reeves 7 1-3 16, Rebich 1 0-0 2, Owings 0 0-0 0, Yost 0 0-0 0, Dickinson 1 4-6 6. TOTALS: 14 7-14 37.

CATHOLIC CENTRAL (13-7): Cherepko 5 2-2 15, Rohde 6 5-7 17, Balabin 0 0-0 0, Riguad 0 0-0 0, Fink 0 0-0 0, Hoover 4 2-4 10, Delaney 2 0-0 4, Bolster 3 1-4 7, Dankert 1 0-0 3, Garcia 3 0-0 8. TOTALS: 24 10-16 64.

3-POINTERS: Toronto 2 (Derrington, Reeves); Catholic Central 6 (Cherepko 3, Garcia 2, Dankert)

NEWSLETTER

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

Starting at $2.99/week.

Subscribe Today