Haley Cook, right, of Marysville, goes up for a basket on Friday against Upper Arlington. Cook scored 16 as the Lady Monarchs won, 54-36. (Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
It’s no secret that Marysville High School’s girls varsity basketball team has had trouble in years past with the Ohio Capital Conference schools that are considered “The Big Three.”
Dublin Coffman, Upper Arlington and Hilliard Davidson have been the top three squads in the circuit’s Central Division for a number of years.
As such, the Lady Monarchs generally experience some trouble against that trio.
This year’s MHS squad took a big step toward breaking that spell on Friday with a 54-36 victory over Upper Arlington.
“This was a very big win for our program tonight,” said head coach Brooke Young. “We feel this team can eventually make a statement in the OCC.”
It was a switch in defensive alignments that led to the Lady Monarchs’ victory.
“For the past two or three games, we had been playing a lot of 2-3 zone,” said Young. “After scouting Upper Arlington, we felt our best way to match up with them was by playing man-to-man.”
Monarch Nation had to be a bit nervous during the first quarter when the Golden Bears jumped out to an 11-3 lead.
Slowly, but surely, the Lady Monarch defense began dead-bolting the doors and shuttering the windows to any driving or passing lanes Upper Arlington might have wanted to exploit.
Haley Cook, who led MHS with 16 points for the game, scored on a stickback, hit a jumper and blew past a defender for baskets that narrowed Marysville’s deficit to 11-9.
Cook later grabbed an offensive rebound and kicked the ball out to Caitlin Cotner, whose jumper tied the contest at 11-all by the end of the period.
Upper Arlington regained a 13-11 edge on a basket from Caroline Guy.
Leah Brown, however, came off the bench and buried a three-ball that kick-started MHS’ offense.
The Lee Sisters – Sydney and Kass – both hit baskets, as did Cotner.
Marysville’s defense forced the Golden Bears into a number of empty possessions.
Kass Lee followed her own miss for a shot that gave the Lady Monarchs their first double-digit lead of 26-15 with 3:13 left on the first-half clock.
Karleigh Sutter hit a jumper and cashed in on a pair of free throws as MHS (4-8 overall and 3-2 in the OCC) doubled its lead at 30-15.
UA’s Alex Criss and Kass Lee swapped free throws.
As such, MHS carried a 31-16 margin into the turn.
The Lady Monarchs’ defense absolutely made life miserable for the Golden Bears during the third quarter.
Numerous UA possessions resulted in turnovers or shots that didn’t come close to hitting iron.
Marysville, on the other hand, capitalized with baskets by Sutter, Cook and Kass Lee.
Those buckets led to MHS’ 41-23 advantage by the end of the third quarter.
Things got a bit tense for the home crowd during the opening minutes of the final stanza.
The Golden Bears found their shooting stroke and eventually narrowed their deficit to 46-36 with a shade more than three minutes left in the contest.
The Lady Monarchs (who will travel to Westerville North on Tuesday) slowed down their tempo a bit as they weren’t in any rush to put up a shot.
That, in turn, forced the Golden Bears to begin fouling down the stretch.
MHS moved into the bonus and eventually the double bonus as UA’s fouls began to mount.
Sydney Lee, Cook and Tinley Graves hit critical charity tosses as the clock wound down to less than a minute.
Graves nailed down the victory when her free throws – with 58 seconds to play – gave the Lady Monarchs their 18-point margin of victory.
“Along with working on our defense, we’ve also concentrated on free throws,” said Young. “It was good to see us hit those shots toward the end of the game.”
Marysville
Cook 6-4-16, K. Lee 5-1-11, S. Lee 2-3-7, Sutter 2-3-7, Graves 1-2-5, Cotner 2-0-4, Brown 1-0-3, Strahm 0-1-1, Hazelbaker 0-0-0, Sloan 0-0-0. Welsch 0-0-0, Williams 0-0-0. Totals 19-14-54.
Three-point goals: Graves 1, Brown 1.
Upper Arlington
Pippins 5-1-11, C. Guy 3-0-7, Hargraves 2-1-5, Brooks 2-0-4, Gest 1-0-3, Wachtman 1-1-3, Feller 1-0-2, Criss 0-1-1, G. Guy 0-0-0, Kuehn 0-0-0. Totals 15-4-36.
Three-point goals: C. Guy 1, Gest 1.
MHS’ jayvees improved to 11-1 with a 62-22 victory during the preliminary game.
The junior Monarchs had four players score in double figures.
Ava Wilkerson led with 14, followed by Abri Schmutz-13, Abbey Williams-12 and Gab Lee-11.