State Finals - Day 1

Thursday, March 15 at 1 PM
Arlington Red Devils 55
Mansfield St. Peters Spartans 44

     Arlington continues their roll to the title by beating St. Peter's 55-44. Tough physical defense held Mansfield superstar Ronda Payne to only 11 points on 4 of 14 shooting, 0 for 5 from beyond the line. Arlington got a monster game from Amelia Recker with 24 points and 10 rebounds. The Spartans stayed in the game but never could get closer than 10 in the final half. Arlington committed 16 turnovers but St.Peter's couldn't take advantage of it. Arlington got 14 points from another Recker, Alivia, and 8 from Jessica hunter.

 

Thursday, March 15 at 3 PM
Hiland Hawks 53
Tri-Village Patriots 47

     Berlin Hiland survives a late surge by Tri-Valley to advance to the D4 Finals Saturday at 10:45 against Arlington. In a game that featured some great shooting, Hiland almost let the foul line lead to their demise. Down 7 with 3 minutes eft Tri-Village went into foul mode, and it proved to be worth it. Hiland missed the front end of all three 1-and-1 opportunities. They shot 5-11 in the last two minutes where New Madison closed within two. Defensively Hiland kept the man pressure extremely high while Tri-Valley played a 2-3 zone most of the game, even while trailing in the 3rd quarter. If the ball and Kayla Linkaus were on the same side of the court Hiland had two defenders on her. The Hawks held Linkaus, the D4 co-Player of the Year, scoreless in the first half. Thomas and Falknor picked up the slack for TV in the first half, both scoring 10, 20 of the 23 in the half. The teams combined for 15 made three pointers, four from Hilands lading scorer and Ashland recruit, McKenzie Miller. Miller finished with 17 while Regina Hochstetler pitched in 14 with three triples. Linkaus exploded in the second half with 19 points, but the Hawks held Thomas and Falknor both scoreless in the second half.

Thursday, March 15 at 6 PM
Columbus Africentric Nubians 57
Smithville Smithies 37

     Smithville would have had to play a pretty perfect game to pull this one out, and they didn't. The nubians outran them all night, and in the second half they started out muscling them as well. The obvious speed difference hurt Smithville tremendously but because of poor shot selection and a lot of individual play the Smithies managed to keep it close in the first half. The nubians applied constant full court pressure and never gave Smithville a brak, often times pushing the 10 seconds alotted to cross half court. The Nubians had 9 players in the scoring column and was led by Kiyanna Blacks 16 points. Smithville didn't allow the Nubians to explode on offense like they do very often, they even had some success defensively when they slowed Africentric enough to force them into a half court offense. Africentric also got 13 points from Darianne Seward and 10 points from Ayrielle Stith. Smithville was led by Tara Schaffter with 17 points.

 

Thursday, March 15 at 8 PM
Anna Rockets (25-0) vs.
Liberty-Benton Eagles (22-2)

     Undefeated Anna arrives in Columbus as the defending D3 champions. The mission wont be easy, #7 Findlay Liberty-Benton is standing in their way. Liberty-Benton is led by Ohio State recruit and sister of OSU's Aaron craft, Caitie craft. Craft averages over 20 points a game and is assisted by Rachel Myers who scores 14 a game. Anna brings with them a 49 game win streak, the last loss was December 13, 2010 to Tipp City Tippecanoe 64-63. Anna is led by Natalie Billing who averages over 17 points per game. Division 4 is the only division with four state ranked teams left, two of which have yet to lose this year. Liberty-Benton is hungry to take the D3 crown back which they claimed in 2010, only to see it taken by Anna last year. The Division 3 title game will be Saturday, March 17 at 2:00 PM.

Stay tuned in for updated stats and info all day long and the preview for Day 2 at the tournament after all of Thursdays action is complete. Fridays games include both D1 and D2 semifinals. Up to the minute updates can be found on twitter @hofhuddle.