ROSS TWP. — A postseason-like atmosphere was mixed with conference-title implications Thursday night.
The Ross and Bellbrook high school girls basketball teams battled it out.
Freshman Libby Bunsold scored a team-high 17 points, Eva Koesters added 10 and the Golden Eagles clinched their fifth straight Southwestern Buckeye League championship with a 44-39 victory over the host Rams.
“We’re ahead in the league, so we knew coming in here that if they wanted a shot at it, they were going to give us everything they had,” Bellbrook coach Jason Tincher said. “We tried to tell our girls that we’d better be focused because they’re going to come at you with everything they have — and that’s because they had to.
“We figured it would be like this. We didn’t necessarily want it to be this close, but we knew it was going to be close in a way. We were like, ‘They’re going to fight.’”
This go-round looked a lot different. The Golden Eagles took care of the Rams 53-34 on Dec. 19.
Ross (14-5, 5-2 SWBL Southwestern) had its seven-game winning streak snapped, while Bellbrook (16-3, 7-0) has won seven of its last eight.
“They put us in a lot of positions,” Rams coach Ben Buehner said. “We saw some areas where we thought that we made it easier for them, and we did a lot better job this game.
“There was a stretch early in the game where we just weren’t getting back in transition. I think we gave them eight to 10 points early in the game just in transition.”
Senior guard Lanie Lipps had a team-high 17 points for Ross, which led 11-6 after the first quarter.
Ross junior Mya Montgomery drained a 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer that tied it at 20-20.
“It was a possession game,” Tincher said. “It was one of those where you’ve got to value each possession because it mattered. It wasn’t like you could just turn it over and give up offensive rebounds and think you’re going to stay in it. It was a very possession-type game.”
Ross led 30-29 with about six minutes left to play, but Bellbrook threw out a couple different defenses that had the Rams scrambling from time to time.
“We changed it up some,” Tincher said. “I think we went some 1-3-1 and some triangle-and-2 — just to try to get them off kilter, which is not easy to do.
“I thought we turned them over a little bit in the fourth quarter,” added Tincher, who had his Golden Eagles apply a 2-2-1 press down the stretch. “We got the ball out of Lanie’s hands, and we just had some of their non-ballhandlers trying to break it. Thank goodness it worked.”
Bunsold connected on a 3-pointer to give Bellbrook a 32-31 lead, and the Golden Eagles stayed on top the rest of the way.
Tincher said Bunsold — who added six assists and five steals — could be one of the best players to go through the Bellbrook program “if we can keep her healthy and going. She’s that good.”
Bellbrook shot 12 of 14 from the free throw line in the second half — including 7 of 8 in the fourth quarter. Tincher said free throws were an emphasis during practice earlier this week.
“On Monday, we shot 100 charted,” Tincher explained. “On Tuesday, we shot another 100 charted.”
Carmen Bosse had 10 points for Ross.
Both teams get back to action on Saturday followed by the OHSAA state tournament drawing on Sunday. Ross travels to Brookville, while Bellbrook hosts Carlisle.
“We fought, we worked,” Buehner said. “Proud of the girls, obviously. But just too many mistakes and too many little moments that hurt us.
“Hopefully, it’s trending in the right direction with the tournament coming up. We draw on Sunday. Maybe some teams take notice and think second about us.”
