CINCINNATI — Braelyn Even and the Badin High School girls basketball team were pleased with the outcome.
“We definitely needed this one,” the sophomore guard said.
Even scored a game-high 16 points, junior Gracie Cosgrove chipped in with 13 and the Rams rolled the Wilmington Hurricanes 56-25 in a Division II district semifinal on Monday night at Indian Hill.
Badin (18-7) has won nine of its last 10 and will face the winner of Urbana and Northridge, who play tonight, in a district final on Friday at Mason at a time to be determined.
Despite the Rams’ recent surge, Even said the on-court intensity has been sparse. But that wasn’t the case, defensively, on Monday.
Badin held Wilmington to six points in the first quarter and six points the entire second half using a high-tempo press.
“I feel like we were in a slump these past couple games,” Even said. “We haven’t played as well as we wanted to. But I feel like this game was a good one for us because we came out with a lot of energy, and we kept the energy throughout the entire game.”
Cosgrove knocked down her share of 3-pointers, and sophomore Hailey Weber got into the mix by draining three of her own to finish with nine points. Ashley Pate had 11 points for the Rams, who broke things open with a 20-2 third-quarter burst.
Miya Nance and Elle Martin had seven points apiece to lead Wilmington, which finished 13-11.
“It’s about what I expected in the first half,” Badin coach Tom Sunderman said. “… Defensively, we were letting them split us up too much in traffic. We had a lot of good energy, and we were really hitting the boards on the offensive end in the first half.
“But we talked about it at halftime — keeping people in front of us, not letting us split, and I thought our girls did a phenomenal job. We challenged them. They held them to six points the whole second half. It was a much better half. Again, our offense always feeds off our defense.”
Badin sped up the game’s pace, while Wilmington wanted to slow it. The Rams, who operated most of their offense on transitions, had no problem doing that.
“That was our concern,” Sunderman said. “We had to keep speeding up the game.”
Sunderman said his squad has been nursing a couple illnesses, but in all, is relatively healthy injury wise.
“We’re still young,” he said. “We’re still working through a lot of things. But I like that the girls are buying into stuff. … We’re getting there. Now the tough part starts.”
Badin has reached the Division II district finals for a fourth straight season.
“We’re just going to keep on practicing and taking care of our bodies,” Even said. “That’s been the big thing. We’re going to get better and keep doing that.”
