DAYTON – The Arcanum Lady Trojans easily advanced in OHSAA DIII tournament play with a 70-26 win over the Northeastern Lady Jets.
“Team win,” said Arcanum coach Michael Dean. “That’s all I care about and I’m hoping that we can carry on.”
The Lady Trojans used the opening three minutes bolting out to a 16-0 lead before Northeastern would dent the board with an Amy Stewart free throw.
Hailey Unger nails a 3-pointer to set single season record. (Gaylen Blosser photo)
Arcanum 5’8” sophomore Hailey Unger set a new Lady Trojans single season 3-point record draining her 44th triple of year with 0:03.2 on the first quarter clock sending the teams to the second quarter of play with Arcanum leading 23-2.
Six Lady Trojans got in the first quarter scoring column led by sophomore Madelyn Fearon’s 8-points including two treys, sophomores Taylor Gray and Unger each with 5-points, seniors Gracie Garno and Kayla O’Daniel each with 2-points and sophomore Meghan McCans with a free throw.
Arcanum took the second quarter 17-10 paced by O’Daniel’s 6-points sending the teams to the break with the Lady Trojans up 40-12.
“They played well,” Dean said of the Lady Trojans. “We just got stale a little bit there when we went into man. It’s tough to stay at a high level. We went in at halftime and re-grouped and we come out and played hard. We came back disciplined like we should.”
Period No. 3 saw the running clock come into play at 6:55 with the Lady Trojans pushing their lead past the 35-point mark, 48-12 on their way to a 20-4 third quarter over the girls from Springfield sending the game to the fourth quarter with Arcanum leading by a 60-14 score. O’Daniel and Fearon each contributed 8-points in the third.
With the Lady Trojans leading 64-22 midway through the final period with all 22 Northeastern points coming from the Lady Jets 6’0” senior Amy Stewart before freshman Emily Taylor would hit a basket at 4:09 to make it a 64-24 game. Arcanum would go on to earn a 44-point second round tournament victory.
“She averages 16-17 points on the season,” Coach Dean said of Stewart. “She is a big kid, she creates space for herself, she moves well and at times we just lost track of her and she got some nice shots. A lot of those were put-backs. She’s a good rebounder and she created space. She’s a big girls and she plays the position well.”
Taylor Gray led Arcanum with 6 fourth quarter points in the team’s 44-point win over Northeastern.
Gracie Garno set a new Arcanum Lady Trojans career assist record in the Thursday night tournament win.
“Hailey set the single season 3-point record and Gracie set the career assist record,” Dean noted. “Gracie already has the single season assist record. This is a great group of girls and I hope to play as long as we can.”
Stewart led Northeastern and all scorers with a game high 24-points while Fearon was high for Arcanum with 19-points including three 3-pointers and 4-4 at the line.
BOXSCORE:
ARCANUM 70, NORTHEASTERN 26
ARCANUM – M. Fearon 19, K. O’Daniel 16, T. Gray 12, H. Unger 12, G. Garno 8, M. McCans 3 – TOTALS 22 14-18 4 70
NORTHEASTERN – A. Steward 24, E. Taylor 2 – TOTALS 12 2-4 0 26
3-POINTERS:
Arcanum 4 (M. Fearon 3, H. Unger 1)
Northeastern 0
SCORE by QUARTERS:
23-17-20-10 70 Arcanum
02-10-04-10 26 Northeastern
