LIBERTY TWP. — Edgewood High School girls basketball coach Xavier Fugate knew it had nothing to do with the tournament jitters when the dust settled Wednesday night.
The No. 21 seeded Cougars simply couldn’t find a way to finish.
Edgewood’s 17-3 first-half run and 19-11 second-quarter lead was nixed by No. 18 Mount Healthy, which clawed its way back for a 44-40 victory in a Division I sectional opener at Lakota East.
“Our shots weren’t falling like they were in the first half,” Fugate said. “It wasn’t anything with being intimidated or anything like that. It just felt like our girls were trying not to lose instead of trying to win.
“This group has to learn how to win,” Fugate added. “There’s been a lot of games this year that we were in where we happened to lose it ourselves. Only three people played in the tournament last year, so not much experience for us there. That played a big part.”
The Cougars (10-13) ended their season losing four out of their last five games. Mount Healthy (16-7) has won four straight against Edgewood.
The Owls move on to face No. 2 seed and state-ranked Lakota East on Wednesday, Feb. 15, at 5 p.m. at Harrison.
“There was a lot of ups and downs during the season, but the games that we needed to win, we did win.” Edgewood senior Heidi West said. “We weren’t able to capitalize on the ones that we should have.
“But I really thought we pushed ourselves to be better,” West added. “We really prepared for this game. So, it kind of sucks for everybody that we didn’t win this one.”
Junior guard Rylie Homan scored 13 points to pace the Cougars, who went into the halftime break on top 24-18.
LaDasia Carter scored six of her 13 points during an 8-1 run that put Mount Healthy up 26-25 midway through the third quarter.
Edgewood’s Maddy Judd hit two free throws with 15 seconds left in the third to tie it up at 32-32. But the Owls went on a 6-2 run and took a 38-34 lead on Ma’ziyah Hunter’s bucket with five minutes remaining.
Homan tied it up at 40-all with a bucket with 45 seconds left to play.
Hunter grabbed an offensive rebound and put the Owls back on top 42-40 with 32 seconds left, and two Natalie Yelling free throws were enough to advance Mount Healthy to the next round.
“We get down on ourselves. Then one mistake leads to another,” Fugate said. “In my opinion, it hasn’t been the other team. It’s been us shooting ourselves in the foot, over and over again.”
The Cougars fired 10 of 22 (45.5%) in the first half, but only shot 5 of 21 (23.8%) in the second. The Owls shot 18 of 36 (50%) from the floor.
Carter finished with 13 points for the Owls, while Yelling had 11 and Amani Mansoor had 10. Mount Healthy’s Marzeara Hunter pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds.
Edgewood freshman Ella Allen scored all 10 of her points in the first half. Judd finished with nine points.
The Cougars graduate seniors Caitlyn West, Jessica Moore and Leah Moore, along with Heidi West.
“The girls I felt just got so much closer because we all knew that we were going through some inconsistency with the coaching staff changes the last few years,” Heidi West said. “We just kind of stuck together through it all. Basketball was just more than a game to us.”
