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Sports

Twinsburg Girls' Basketball Team Makes It To State

Tigers knock off No. 1 Canton McKinley for Division I regional championship

Twinsburg seniors Nicole Carman’s and Katie Fox’s expressions were unmistakable.

It was over. They finally did it. They were Division I regional champions, and they did it over their biggest rival, too.

Canton McKinley had kept the door shut on Twinsburg’s final-four dreams the last two years, but on Friday night, the Tigers kicked that door right down.

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The two top teams in Division I girls’ basketball put on a show, clawing at each other until the final minutes, but the No. 2 Tigers never trailed and held their nerve at the end to prevail, 48-39, and upend the No. 1 ranked and defending champion Bulldogs at Canton Memorial Civic Center.

The building itself had been a place of harsh memories for the Tigers, especially since the Bulldogs have had a de facto home court advantage over the Tigers in Canton for those big games. But whatever bad memories the past held were overshadowed in Carman’s moment of triumph.

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“It feels great, especially beating a team we lost two years in a row to,” senior forward Carman said. “The fact that we’re going to states is an amazing feeling. I hope I feel like this again.”

The Tigers will face Pickerington North (21-5) whom they defeated, 59-49, earlier this season Friday at 8 p.m. in Columbus.

Junior center Malina Howard had 12 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Tigers (25-0), while senior guard Katie Fox had nine points, all of them coming in the second half and many of them on the free-throw line down the stretch to secure the win.

“It’s hard to put into words. It’s easy to say this is the happiest night of my life,” Fox said. “I’m so thankful everything we worked for is coming to fruition. It just seems everything our coach told us to work for throughout the whole season would all come down to this night.”

Aaliyah Dotson had 12 points and Laneisha Lennon had 11 to lead Canton McKinley (25-1). The Bulldogs’ big gun Ameryst Alston was held to nine points and fouled out of the game with 1:06 remaining.

Canton McKinley’s title road last season included beating the Tigers in the regional final, 53-43. The Bulldogs also won, 45-43, in the regional semifinals in 2009. But those terrible memories are over now, and Twinsburg coach Julie Solis can look forward to a trip to the Jerome Schottenstein Center in Columbus.

“I’m just so happy for these kids. It’s really just about them right now. They really worked that hard for it and they played a great team,” Solis said. “To be the best you’ve got to beat the best.”

Fox’s late heroics got the Tigers over the hump in the fourth quarter. With Twinsburg leading, 35-31, at the start of the fourth quarter, the two teams traded a pair of scores, but Fox’s two makes at the line pushed the Tigers advantage to 41-35.

After Alston scored, Howard found Carman for an easy basket for a 43-37 lead. A Fox rebound allowed the Tigers to run down the clock where Fox got fouled and made 1 of 2 free throws at 2:01. Alston scored once more before fouling out, but Fox sank another pair and Leah Fechko made a runaway layup to seal the Tigers’ trip to Columbus.

In the first quarter, Howard scored six of the Tigers’ first eight points using her 6-foot-4 frame and nimble feet to position herself over the Bulldogs who don’t have a player on their roster listed above 6-0. Howard powered the Tigers to an 8-6 lead to break the game’s first tie, but the Bulldogs’ Alston knotted the score, 8-8, with a pair of foul shots for the final tie of the game.

Carman sank two at the line and an Ashley Morrissette layup gave the Tigers the first quarter edge, 12-8.

After a Marquia Turner basket drew the Bulldogs within two to begin the second quarter, Twinsburg went on an 8-3 run as Nicole Mabry rounded it off with a drive into the lane for a 20-13 lead. The Bulldogs rallied quickly as Lennon got a basket while Howard committed her third foul of the half which seemed to give Canton McKinley a momentary lift. Dotson immediately converted the turnover into a three-pointer with 47 seconds left to close the half’s scoring, 20-18.

In the third quarter, Fox had two assists and two steals including one that led to a layup at 2:47 to give the Tigers a 32-24 lead followed by a pass to Carman for a score, foul and free throw for a 35-26 lead. But Alston hit a wide-open three-pointer and Dotson hit a wild shot for a buzzer-beating score for 35-31 at the end of the quarter.

Canton McKinley  8 10 13 8 39

Twinsburg   12 8 15 13 48

Canton McKinley:  Aaliyah Dotson 12, Ameryst Alston 9, Laneisha Lennon 11, Gabby Kendall 2, Marquia Turner 5.

Twinsburg: Ashley Morrissette8, Malina Howard 12, Leah Fechko 2, LaShawna Gatewood 8, Katie Fox 9, Nicole Mabry 2, Nicole Carman 7.

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