Waynesville’s late comeback derails WL-S
COVINGTON — For the second consecutive season, West Liberty-Salem’s girls basketball team saw its postseason run ended by Waynesville here Monday night.
But this one was much different than last year’s 43-30 sectional final loss to the Spartans, a game in which WL-S fell down early and never recovered.
In Monday’s rematch, the Tigers outplayed the Spartans for the first 25 minutes and built a double-digit advantage.
The Tigers could not land the knockout punch, though, as Waynesville finished the game with an 18-7 run to pull out a 37-36 victory in a Division III sectional championship game at Covington High School.
WL-S, which came into the game as the state’s third-ranked Division III team with a perfect 22-0 record, struggled to hang onto the ball down the stretch against Waynesville’s full-court press.
“We got going too fast and couldn’t get ourselves slowed down,” said WL-S head coach Dennis McIntosh said of a turnover-plagued fourth quarter. “I thought we handled their press pretty well for the first three quarters and even early in the fourth quarter, but they got a little more aggressive and they sped us up. We let ourselves get into trouble.”
WL-S, which was averaging only 11 turnovers per game, committed 18 against the Spartans.
The free-throw line was not kind to the Tigers either. They were 5-of-13 for the game and made just 3-of-10 foul shots in the fourth quarter.
“Those hurt, but it’s high school basketball and things happen sometimes that you don’t expect,” said McIntosh. “Tonight was one of those nights.”
The first three quarters could not have been scripted any better for the Tigers, who raced to a 13-4 lead after one quarter and a 19-4 advantage midway through the second period.
The Spartans (15-7) warmed up late in the half, closing with a 7-0 run to make it an eight-point difference (19-11) at halftime.
WL-Salem pushed its lead back into double digits during the third quarter, but the Spartans refused to go away.
Waynesville cut the Tigers’ lead to six late in the third period before WL-S received a big lift in the final seconds on a three-pointer by Hailey Smith that boosted the cushion to nine (28-19) going into the closing stanza.
The Tigers’ Selena Weaver made one of two free throws to make it a 10-point game at the 7:14 mark of the fourth quarter.
The momentum started to shift from there.
Waynesville’s frantic full-court press led to a string of WL-S turnovers, allowing the Spartans to whittle away at the Tigers’ lead.
The Spartans used a 6-0 spurt to get within four (29-25) with 4:42 left.
WL-Salem’s Emily Hollar split a pair of free throws with 4:18 remaining to give her team a five-point lead.
Waynesville’s surge continued, though.
Isabella Cassoni made a pair of free throws and standout shooting guard Leah Butterbaugh, who had 22 points against the Tigers last year, scored a bucket inside to chop the Tigers’ lead to just one point (30-29) at the 3:57 mark.
Weaver answered with a basket of her own in the paint to put WL-S up by three (32-29) with 3:11 left on the clock.
Waynesville kept attacking, combining a driving bucket by Butterbaugh with a three-pointer from the wing by Alexei VanSchaik to take its first lead of the game at 34-32 with 2:02 remaining.
It was the only three Waynesville made all night.
Cassoni then hit both ends of a 1-and-1 to with 50.8 seconds to play to increase the Spartans’ lead to four (36-32).
Following a pair of empty trips to the foul line by both teams, the Tigers’ Smith was fouled going for a rebound with 8.7 ticks left on the clock. She made one of two free-throw attempts to make it a one-possession game at 36-33.
Cassoni was fouled with 4.5 seconds left and made the first attempt before missing the second.
The Tigers’ Grace Estes banked in a three-pointer and WL-S immediately called a timeout with 7/10ths of a second left.
But Waynesville was able to get the ball inbounded to Casoni after the timeout to run out the clock.
“You just never want to see it end,” said McIntosh. “But you look at what these girls have done, especially our seniors, to keep it all together this season and you can’t ask for anything more. The girls did a great job fighting through quarantines and just getting to this point.”
McIntosh had nothing but high praise for his four departing seniors: Weaver, Sophie Cole, Grace Estes and Madeline Hutton.
“They have been a part of a lot of success during their careers,” said McIntosh. “Three of them have been on the varsity team since their freshman year. They made it to two district finals, two sectional finals, won three league titles and won 89 games.”
Weaver led the Tigers with 13 points. Hollar had 11 points and Smith added seven.
Butterbaugh scored 13 points to lead the Spartans, with Cassoni contributing 11.
WAYNESVILLE 37, WL-S 36
WAYNESVILLE (15-7)
Stupp 1 0-1 2; Butterbaugh 6 1-2 13; Whitaker 1 0-0 2; VanSchaik 2 0-0 5; Bailey 1 0-0 2; Cassoni 2 7-9 11; Anderson 1 0-0 2. Totals: 14 8-12 37.
WL-SALEM (22-1)
Hollar 5 1-2 11; Estes 2 0-1 5; Weaver 5 3-5 13; Smith 2 1-2 7; Cole 0 0-3 0. Totals: 14 5-13 36.
Spartans 4 7 8 18 — 37
Tigers 13 6 9 8 — 36
Three pointers: Waynesville 1 (VanSchaik); WL-Salem 3 (Smith 2, Estes). Team fouls: Waynesville 16; WL-Salem 15.