LIBERTY TWP. — Madison Parrish enjoyed a Wednesday evening out on the basketball court with her Mason High School teammates.
The glaring smile said it all.
Parrish scored a game-high 22 points and the visiting Mason Comets used a surging second half to beat the Lakota East Thunderhawks 59-39 in a marquee Greater Miami Conference battle.
“It was a great night. I love this GMC matchup,” said Parrish, a 6-foot senior guard who leads the conference scoring 18.3 points a game. “They always give us great competition. I’m just proud of the girls tonight. We all played as a team, and we took care of business.”
Mason takes a two-game lead atop the GMC standings and is aiming for its fifth consecutive league title. The Comets (18-1, 13-0 GMC) have won four in a row against Lakota East (12-6, 11-2 GMC).
“Our kids stick to the gameplan, and they’re really unselfish,” Mason first-year coach Gideon Dudgeon said. “Whether it’s defensively, offensively, helping their teammates. And so we thought our depth would hopefully wear them down.
“When you don’t have your legs, you can’t shoot. So they really did stick to the gameplan, and that’s all them. You can only give it to them, and they’ve got to take care of it themselves because I can’t play the game for them.”
Mason has won four in a row following a 61-47 loss to Anthony Wayne in the Classic in the Country. The Comets knocked off defending Division I state champion Olmsted Falls at Classic in the Country to start their winning streak.
“It’s an unbelievable experience up there — just the hospitality,” Dudgeon said. “But from a basketball standpoint, you want to be able to play in crowds like this because our goal is to go as far as we can, and so it’s a comfort level.”
The Comets led 18-12 after one quarter. Lakota East, which had its five-game winning streak snapped, used an 8-0 run to pull the deficit to within 23-20 midway through the second.
The Comets took a 30-26 advantage into the halftime break.
“You look in the first half, and we absolutely had some opportunities where we got to the rim, took contact, didn’t make it. We didn’t get the points,” Lakota East coach Dan Wallace said. “So we end up with free throws, come up with some empty possessions on some really good situations. I think that got a little bit frustrating for our kids.
“Then we went into halftime, and we kind of talked about it. Thought we had a pretty good plan. We came into the second half, and I felt like we still had that similar situation where certain plays should turn into points.”
Mason outscored Lakota East 16-7 in the third quarter, and the Comets grabbed their largest lead at 51-31 near the six-minute mark of the fourth.
Addyson Johnson converted a three-point play to bring the Thunderhawks to within 53-37 with 3:17 remaining, but that was as close as they’d get. Mason shot 24 of 51 (47%) from the floor and outrebounded Lakota East 35-18.
“I think Mason, first of all, hit a lot of key and good shots,” said Lakota East senior guard Brooke Asher, who had a team-high 18 points. “I think our defense was pretty good for the most part. There were some times where it was iffy — maybe on the O-boards. But for the most part, Mason just came down and hit a lot of shots. And I felt like we fired back at times, but then there was some that we just didn’t make — the little layups. I think that was the probably the biggest part of the score distance today.
“We definitely focused more on offense,” Asher added in regard to prepping for Mason, “Just because Mason isn’t really a whole switching team, we wanted to use ball screens and draw the big out. We definitely scout people’s play, so knowing the rotations and who’s the shooters and who’s the slashers and who’s going to rebound. So that was definitely what we prepared for the most.”
Mason freshman Taylor Stanfield had 15 points and a game-high eight rebounds. Anna Habra scored 14 points and brought down seven boards.
Parker Straub had eight points for Lakota East, while Bella Sturgill added six points and five rebounds.
“Just keeping our heads up,” Asher said of approaching the rest of the season. “Keep going. The season’s not over, obviously. We still have four games left of regular season. So keeping our heads up, keep pushing on, because all these teams in the GMC are pretty good, and you never know who could have a good night or a bad night. So just keeping our foot on the gas and staying with it — scouting, defense, getting reps up and stuff like that.”
Both teams get back to action on the road Saturday afternoonfor 1:45 p.m. tips. Mason travels to Middletown, while Lakota East visits Fairfield.
“Every game we want to play, but this one it definitely has a cherry on top to it,” Parrish said. “But as long as we keep this momentum going throughout the rest of the regular season, we’ll have that GMC title to ourselves. That’s our main goal.”
