The next step was the Division IV regional semifinals on Thursday night at Butler High School, a stage the Blackhawks knew nothing about. Their opponent was Marion Local, a regular participant at this stage of the tournament. And the Flyers played enough like a team used to being here. But for too much of the game the Blackhawks did not.
Still, the Blackawks had an opportunity to win in the fourth quarter. But Marion made a couple more plays, committed a couple fewer turnovers and advanced with a 40-37 victory to Saturday’s 2 p.m. regional final against top-ranked Fort Loramie (25-2).
“We really didn’t play like ourselves today,” said Paige who was named Southwest District Division IV coach of the year this week. “Maybe it was nerves. Things we went over in practice we didn’t execute well. That was the difference in the game.”
The Blackhawks (21-5) were coming off not only their first district title but a benchmark win over Tri-Village by 20 points in the district semifinals. Valley finished second in the Western Ohio Athletic Conference because of a regular-season loss to Tri-Village.
Marion (20-7) jumped out to a 9-0 lead, but Valley fought back to trail 20-16 at halftime and be tied 26-26 after three quarters. All along the Blackhawks struggled with turnovers and getting scoring chances for point guard Taylee Woodbury, the Southwest District Division IV player of the year. She was held to eight points.
“We called plays to get her open,” Paige said. “Maybe it was the moment, maybe it was the nerves. Some of our girls weren’t really running the plays as we were calling them. We never looked comfortable in anything we were doing.”
Post MacKenzie Townsend scored 13 points for the Blackhawks, but turnovers and too many missed shots held them well below the usual 60-plus points they score.
Allison Dirksen led the Flyers with 17 points. But overall the Flyers struggled to score and get open shots as much as Valley did. Still, three free throws in the final 18 seconds were enough to survive.
“Obviously we didn’t shoot real well, so we keyed on defense, and I thought we did a pretty good job defensively,” Flyers coach Beth Streib said. “We talked also about how our decision making’s going to have to definitely get better before Saturday.”
No doubt. Fort Loramie has won three state championships since 2013. The Redskins know their way around the regional stage.
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