BARBERTON — Streetsboro girls basketball players, coaches and fans experienced a night like none other in the history of the program Tuesday night on Greynolds Floor in the Magic City.
Playing in their first regional tournament game, the ninth-seeded Rockets overcame a nine-point deficit in each half to earn a 45-42 win over top-seeded St. Vincent-St. Mary in a Division II, Region 5 semifinal.
Streetsboro sophomore Carlee Bedford and senior Ella Kassan played key roles in starting the comeback in the third quarter.
Junior Naomi Benson finished the comeback in the fourth quarter as Streetsboro (23-4) advanced to meet Laurel (17-10) in a regional final at 7 p.m. Friday back at Barberton.
“I feel excited,” Benson said. “I am happy for me and my team. This is like a surreal feeling. When that buzzer went off and I looked at the score, it just hit me like ‘Oh, we just really won.’ It is just an unbelievable feeling.”
Benson, Bedford and Kassan were all smiles after the win over STVM (21-6) and hugged anyone dressed in blue and gold after the game that tipped off at 8:04 p.m. ended at 9:45 p.m.
Benson finished with 17 points, 16 rebounds, four blocks, two assists and one steal.
Streetsboro’s win Tuesday came after it lost to host STVM 61-44 on Jan. 20.
“Our first game against them, we didn’t come out with that intensity,” Bedford said. “… I feel like our third quarter was our best quarter in this game. Coming out with the intensity on defense, I feel like that put us in the position that we needed to be in to win.
“I woke up this morning feeling like I was ready to play. I knew that this was going to be the longest day of my life when we would be playing them at 8 o’clock, but giving me all that time really made me think, watch film and look back to our first game against them and realize the mistakes that we made. I don’t think we made those tonight.”
Streetsboro ninth-year coach Carl Singer hugged his players and assistant coaches, Ira Campbell, Scott Clark, Bryan Bedford and Kevin Kukla. Bedford, who is Carlee’s father, was a sophomore player in 2002 when the Kent State University men’s basketball team made a run to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Tournament.
Bedford’s daughter has helped Streetsboro march to the Elite Eight in OHSAA’s Division II Tournament.
“I am very happy,” Singer said. “… We thought about playing that card before the game, the underdog card, and talking to them about nobody expects us to win. We actually went the other direction with it and said ‘They have one play here and that is to come out and pressure us and try to get us with their pressure, and if we handle that it’s our game to win.'”
Benson, a 6-foot-3 forward with scholarship offers from colleges around the country, scored Streetsboro’s final 11 points as the Rockets outscored the Irish 12-8 in the fourth quarter.
“She is just that kid that when she sees an opportunity to take over, she knows that is what she is capable of doing,” Singer said. “She just didn’t want to lose.”
Bedford scored nine of Streetsboro’s 15 points in the third quarter. She finished with 16 points and eight rebounds.
“I saw players step up all game, but those two in those quarters in the second half, we saw the writing on the wall,” Singer said of Benson and Bedford. “We saw that we needed to make a comeback there and make a run to get us going. Those two are big-time players.”
Tuesday’s win comes after Streetsboro won its first league championship in girls basketball this season by sharing the Metro Athletic Conference title with Norton, and then defeating Norton on March 2 to win the program’s first district crown.
“I guess we like doing these firsts,” Singer said. “I guess we don’t want to miss out on continuing that roll. It is a fun ride and I am so proud of these girls. It is just amazing.”
Streetsboro received all of its scoring from its starters. Benson said better defense this time around was key.
“Beating St. V, I don’t think Streetsboro has ever beat St. V [in girls basketball],” Bedford said. “It feels so good.”
Kassan and junior Sydney Abbuhl had five points, three rebounds and two assists apiece. Sophomore Olivia Johnson-Wilson added two points, two assists and three steals.
“Our passion for the game and our love for each other helped us win,” Kassan said. “I don’t think my teammates wanted this to be my last game and I certainly didn’t want this to be my last time playing with the underclassmen. I feel like that really drove us to win.
“… I wouldn’t want to do this with anyone else. These are my best friends and I love playing basketball with them.”
Seniors Maddy Hajec and Cara Tiller contributed on the defensive end as Streetsboro erased deficits of 22-13 and 24-15 in the second quarter, 24-18 at halftime and 31-22 and 33-24 in the third quarter.
Bedford made a layup, a 3-pointer and four free throws in the third quarter as Streetsboro trimmed its deficit to 34-33 entering the fourth quarter.
Benson made four buckets near the basket and three free throws in the fourth quarter.
The Rockets largest lead was 44-39 with 1:12 to go after a Benson layup, but Irish sophomore Tatum Smith countered with a 3-pointer to make it 44-42 with 51.8 seconds left.
Benson made 1 of 2 free throws with 15.6 seconds remaining and STVM was unable to make an off-balance 3-pointer on its final possession.
“I feel like we kept our composure and we played as a team,” Johnson-Wilson said. “We had this talk over and over that we were not losing to a team twice.”
Said Abbuhl: “We knew we could win this game from the beginning. We watched the film and we weren’t playing our best basketball [at STVM on Jan. 20]. Our last couple of games and against Norton in the district final, we have seen the basketball that we can play. We brought the heat against Norton and I think we brought that same intensity here.”
STVM girls basketball season ends in OHSAA regional semifinal
Senior Jaicee Wallace paced STVM with nine points, four rebounds and three steals. Smith made two 3-pointers and a layup for eight points and grabbed five rebounds.
Irish freshman Melania Cornute finished with seven points, six rebounds and two assists, junior Kendal Batchik made two-pointers for six points and senior Chenoa Moss added four points.
“This is a hard one,” STVM 10th-year coach Carley Whitney said. “It is tough. I feel like we probably took some 3-pointers that didn’t go in, they kind of got the bounce, which led into long rebounds and assists to them up the floor and they got some and-ones.”
Whitney is set to bid farewell to seven seniors: starters Wallace and Erica King and reserves Moss, KaMiah Pryor, Shianna Cotton, Leyla Thompson and Malaya Young.
“They are the foundation of what we do,” Whitney said of the seven seniors. “I know that tonight’s end result isn’t what we wanted, but those kids are winners. They are going to win in whatever that they do. This is a great group. A special group. Get along and do what they are told. Have great grades. They support each other. They are there for each other all the time. In the grand scheme of things when you look at life and why you coach, that is one of the reasons why you coach.
“It is kind of hard to talk about the game right now because it is just so fresh. It stings, it hurts.
“… I thought that they did a good job of controlling the tempo when they made their run. We made some mistakes. We turned the ball over two or three times in a row, picked up some quick fouls and whether we didn’t get the foul on the other end or not, they converted their stops. We didn’t. And we got two steals there with under two minutes and we didn’t convert the layups. We make both of those, it is a different ballgame. At the end of the day, it is a really, really hard pill to swallow because they are such a special group.”
STVM, a district champion for the second year in a row, is set to return four of the eight players who played Tuesday: starters Cornute, Batchik and junior Denni Lawrence and reserve Smith.
“The future is bright,” Whitney said. “… I have got great kids all across the board from seven seniors to down below. At the end of the day, I have got special kids who work hard.”
Michael Beaven can be reached at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal and is on Twitter at @MBeavenABJ.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Streetsboro wins OHSAA girls basketball regional semifinal over STVM
