Girls basketball: Centerville nips Wayne to earn piece of GWOC title

Elks, Warriors and Springboro share top spot

HUBER HEIGHTS — In the middle of the second half of a close game Thursday night, Centerville shot and missed. The rebound hit the floor and bounced toward the left corner. A Wayne player was in position to grab the ball.

But as Centerville point guard Amy Velasco said: “We had determination.”

Cotie McMahon, the Elks’ best player and one of the top players in Ohio, flew past the Wayne player and got the rebound. After another missed shot, McMahon chased down the ball again and knocked it out of bounds off a Wayne player.

“The biggest thing for me was they got all the loose balls,” Wayne coach Travis Trice said. “We didn’t get any loose balls.”

And in the final minutes, Velasco, McMahon and their teammates made enough winning plays to lift the No. 7-ranked Elks to a 66-64 victory over the No. 5 Warriors, overcoming a 29-point effort by Wayne star Bree Hall.

“The kids played with a little more intensity than we did earlier this year and even last year,” Centerville coach Adam Priefer said. “Defensively we made some good adjustments at times. The girls just played really hard tonight.”

The Elks (15-2, 6-1 GWOC) celebrated in the middle of the floor. They had just secured a share of the GWOC title with the Warriors (13-2, 6-1) and Springboro (14-5, 6-1). The GWOC is only counting the first round of games toward the league title in case all the games don’t get played. When Wayne and Centerville close the regular season at Centerville, the game will not count in the league standings.

The Elks also broke a three-game losing streak to Wayne, all of them by double digits.

“Just the fact that we came out here together and won as a team,” said McMahon, one of the nation’s top juniors who has committed to Ohio State. “I wasn’t really worried about anything else as far as points, stats, anything. As long as we took care of business as a team.”

Velasco, a Bowling Green signee, led the Elks with 19 points. Her step-back 3-pointer for a 53-52 lead with 5:28 left and her drive and dish to Ashley Ballard for a layup with 58 seconds left for a 62-60 lead were big plays.

“Amy Velasco’s a winner — she always has been,” Trice said.

McMahon scored 17 points and clinched the win with two free throws with 11 seconds left for a four-point lead.

Hall, who is signed with South Carolina and is the 14th-ranked player in the class of 2021, played the entire game as did Stetson-bound Alyssa Hargrove-Hall, who scored 21 points.

“Both teams are good, a lot of great players on both teams and the atmosphere was pretty exciting for the Covid atmospheres we’re allowed to have,” Priefer said. “Both teams played exceptionally hard and executed and made it hard on both defenses all night. Luckily at the end we were able to have a little spurt.”

The players know each other well as school rivals and from the summer AAU circuit. Hall, a 6-foot guard, was assigned to Velasco most of the game, just as she has been the past two years. But with a thin bench, Trice didn’t always have the defensive matchups he wanted. And Velasco took advantage when Hall had to cover McMahon with the help of some high ball screens that gave her room to maneuver.

“That’s a challenge and that’s a good defensive assignment by them,” Priefer said. “It makes it hard on Amy, but she battled through it and hit some amazing shots.”

Wayne was left with replaying missed opportunities throughout the game, including twice when Hall got the ball inside in the final minute.

“We missed a ton of layups and we didn’t get any offensive rebounds,” Trice said. “We had plenty of opportunities, so hats off to them. They did a great job.

“It wasn’t the two points that we lost by. It was the other plays throughout the game.”

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