North Union’s Addison Wedding goes up for the center jump at Columbus Centennial. The Lady Cats won the Division II tournament game on a late basket.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Bob Putman)
—
North Union went though some pretty rough moments on Saturday in its Division II Central District sectional tournament hoop final at No. 3 Columbus Centennial.
While some of the numbers were not on the plus side for the sixth-seeded Lady Cats, the only number that mattered overshadowed anything else that happened during the game.
Kennedy Harrah’s scoop of a loose ball under the North Union basket ended with the sophomore guard scoring the game-winning basket with 2.2 seconds left as the Lady Cats defeated the Stars 52-51.
The win earned North Union a trip to the district semifinals on Wednesday against No. 9 Heath at Highland High School. The tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.
The final two points by Harrah allowed her to bounce back from a low moment in which she missed an earlier free throw that would have tied the game.
“I missed the free throw and I knew I had to come back,” Harrah said.
The free throw she missed was the first of two attempts. She made the second to make it 51-50 in Centennial’s favor with 6.8 seconds left.
Centennial tried to work an inbounds play, but Addison Wedding deflected the pass and Harrah picked it up for the layup.
“We stayed strong on the ball and it hit off Addison,” Harrah said. “I was able to get it and put it up.”
Even when things were not going well for North Union (16-7), head coach Bre Jackson saw good things from her team.
“We were able to continue to play with confidence and not count ourselves out,” Jackson said. “Centennial was a very physical team, something we sometimes have trouble with, but we kept pushing through it.”
There was a lot of back and forth between the two teams in the fourth quarter.
North Union trailed 42-38 to begin the frame, but baskets by Audrey Benedict and Wedding in the first two minutes gave the Lady Cats 43-42 edge.
A score from the Stars’ Kayla Houston was countered by an inside hoop by Kaylin Colegrove.
The Lady Cats trailed 48-45 with just over three minutes left following a rebound basket by Aza Corbett.
Benedict netted pair of free throws only to have Centennial’s Kennedy Houston score on a drive, getting the Stars back to a three-point margin at 50-47.
Zoe Wedding hit a short banker to get North Union within one (50-49) with 39 seconds left, setting up the exciting finish.
“Sometimes things just go your way,” Jackson said. “We put Addison on the ball on the inbounds. We stayed active and Kennedy made the right play at the right time.”
Helped by a pair of three-point goals from Zoe Wedding, North Union led 12-11 at the end of the first quarter.
Another Wedding trey upped the count to 15-11 to start the second quarter.
Her fourth extra-point goal of the half had the Lady Cats leading 24-21 with one minute left.
Centennial scored the final six points of the half and led 27-24 at the intermission.
The Stars increased their lead to 35-29 in the third quarter on a three-point play by Kennedy Houston at the 5:38 mark.
North Union put together a seven-point run on two baskets by Colegrove and a fifth three-point goal from Wedding to lead 38-36 with 2:42 on the clock.
The Lady Cats did not score the rest of the quarter and trailed 42-38 at the end of the stanza.
Zoe Wedding, who also had five assists and six rebounds, notched 17 points to lead the Lady Cats, while Benedict totaled 11 markers.
Colegrove came off the bench to score a season-high 10 points.
Harrah had eight rebounds and three steals, while Benedict totaled seven rebounds.
“Kailyn stepped up inside for us,” Jackson said.
When it came down to the final result, Harrah had a pretty simple reflection.
“Whoever has the most points wins and that was us,” Harrah said.
North Union
Benedict 3-5-11, K. McElory 0-0-0, Z. Wedding 6-0-17, Martino 0-0-0. Colegrove 5-0-10, A. Wedding 4-1-9, Harrah 2-1-5, Lindsay 0-0-0. Three-point goals: Z. Wedding 5.
Centennial
Ke. Houston 10-3-24, Cordette 1-0-2, Perkins 1-0-3, Ka. Houston 8-5-22, Izzo 0-0-0. Three-point goals: Ke. Houston, Ka. Houston, Perkins.