By Dave Long

Contributing Writer

For just over three quarters Saturday afternoon, Springboro’s offense was a work in progress.

Coach Tom Benjamin used 11 players — nine with no varsity experience — to see what combinations worked best in the Panthers’ girls high school basketball opener.

With under five minutes to go, however, things became familiar. Get the ball to Jenny DeGraaf around the basket and clear out. DeGraaf, a 6-foot-2 senior headed for Penn State, scored 9 of her game-high 17 points and Boro pulled away from 1-1 Alter for a 44-30 win.

“I posted up a few times, but most of the time I was out on the wing or running the baseline,” said DeGraaf, who added 16 rebounds. “With so many new players, coach wanted to do different things.

“But when we fell behind (28-27 with 5:10 to go), he told me to post up. It surprised Alter a little. My teammates gave me great passes inside.”

DeGraaf scored seven straight points as Boro broke to a 36-28 lead with 2:15 to go. On the defensive end she helped anchor a 2-3 zone that held Alter to 16-percent shooting for the game including 0-for-15 from the floor in the final five minutes.

“Except for Jenny and Morgan (Glodowski), we’re starting from scratch,” said Benjamin. “It seemed like every time we stopped Alter, we’d throw the ball away (24 turnovers).

“Some kids did some nice things, but we needed to do what Jenny can do and she did. Great win for us considering the experience factor and how good Alter can be.”

Boro is coming off an outstanding year when it went 22-2, won the Greater Western Ohio Conference at 10-0 and was ranked No. 4 in the state. DeGraaf averaged 14.6 points and 6.1 rebounds on that team to earn special mention Division I All-Ohio honors.

Kara Bockrath had 12 for Alter, which is also young with three freshmen, five sophomores and two juniors.

“We ran some nice offensive sets against their zone but couldn’t get anything to fall,” frustrated Alter coach Chris Hart said. “We were still in it when Jenny took over. You can see why she’s going to be playing in the Big Ten.”