Sports

VICTORY: Malina Howard Leads Lady Tigers to First State Championship

Saturday's victory over Fairmont is a storybook ending to an undefeated season

The Twinsburg Lady Tigers are state champions for the first time ever. Check back for coverage.

2:28 LEFT IN THE FOURTH QUARTER

With less than 3 minutes left in the game, Twinsburg has maintained a five point lead, 47-42. Fairmont is putting the press on Twinsburg, but the Tigers haven't cracked.

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Fairmont just threw the ball away. 2:28 left in the championship game.

4:56 LEFT IN THE FOURTH QUARTER

Find out what's happening in Twinsburgwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Twinsburg is up by eight points, already in the bonus and leading Fairmont 43-35.

END OF THIRD QUARTER

Malina Howard had tiger blood in the third quarter. She scored, she defended and she fought, leading Twinsburg back from a seven point deficit to take a four point lead, 36-32, going into the fourth quarter.

Howard scored seven of her 15 points in the third.

This is it, folks. Stay tuned for the outcome.

3:48 LEFT IN THIRD QUARTER

The Tigers are pushing back in the third quarter, cutting Fairmont's lead to two points, 29-27.

Howard is now leading the Tigers with 13 points and three straight baskets. She's playing pumped up for the first time tonight.

END OF HALF

A three pointer by Fairmont's Alona Skipper lifted the Firebirds' lead to seven at halftime, 26-19.

Only three Twinsburg players -- Howard, Morrissette and Fechko -- have scored. Twinsburg is shotting 30 percent from the field, while Fairmont is hitting nearly 48 percent of their shots.

Killing the Tigers is Fairmont's Kathryn Westbeld, who has 10 points, four rebounds, two assists and a block.

Here are Twinsburg's stats so far:

Name Rebounds Assists Points Howard, M. 5 o 8 Morrissette, A. 3 0 7 Fechko, L. 1 0 4 Fox, K. 2 2 0 Dunnigan, C. 1 0 0 Carman, N. 0 1 0 Gatewood, L. 1 0 0

 

3:48 LEFT IN SECOND QUARTER

Twinsburg's shots aren't falling. Fairmont's are.

The bright side for the Tigers is that they only trail by two points, but they need to muster up something extra to take control of the game.

END OF FIRST QUARTER

Fairmont went on a run to end the first quarter to tie the game at 10 points each.

Twinsburg's shooting has been off so far, and Fairmont seems motivated to push the Tigers to the brink. This second quarter will be crucial.

For the Tigers, Howard and Fechko each have four and Morrissette has two points.

3:06 LEFT IN FIRST QUARTER

Twinsburg is leading Fairmont 8-4, led by Leah Fechko's four points. Howard has two points, and so does Ashley Morrissette.

TIPOFF

The game has begun.

About 1:30 into the game, it's all tied up at 4 each. But Malina Howard picked up an early foul.

PREGAME

In a couple of hours, the Twinsburg Lady Tigers could be the undefeated state champions of Division I high school basketball. 

First, Coach Julie Solis, star center Malina Howard and company must fight off the Kettering Fairmont Firebirds.

The game is set to begin in about 30 minutes, so stay tuned to Twinsburg Patch (and follow us on Twitter) for updates throughout the game.


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