Marysville’s Caitlin Cotner hauls down a rebound Tuesday evening against Olentangy Liberty.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
“We had it until we didn’t,” said Marysville High School girls basketball coach Brooke Young.
By that, the second-year head coach said she felt the Lady Monarchs stayed with Olentangy Liberty for a while before running out of gas.
The fatigue eventually led to a 69-41 setback for MHS on Tuesday.
The numbers, at times, supported Young’s thinking.
The Lady Monarchs held slight leads during the opening period on the strength of their outside shooting.
Three-point goals from Tinley Graves, Haley Cook and Alyssa Strahm staked MHS (1-4) to an 11-9 edge.
The Patriots tied the game at 11-11 on a baseline move from Jordan Rich.
They then took a 14-11 lead into the ensuing stanza after Teegan Pifher knocked down a three-pointer.
Madi Sloan scored in the paint to pull MHS to within 14-13.
Liberty, however, went on an 8-0 run and climbed to a 22-13 advantage.
Graves drilled another trifecta to momentarily halt Liberty’s momentum.
The Patriots, however, scored seven quick points and went on top 29-16 when Rich made a nice drop-step move along the baseline.
Graves once again came to the Lady Monarchs’ rescue.
She buried a couple additional trifectas, narrowing MHS’ gap to 29-22 with less than three minutes left to play in the opening half.
Rich later hit an open jumper right before the buzzer.
That sent Liberty into the turn with a 35-24 lead.
The Lady Patriots jumped out to a 38-26 margin early in the third quarter when Gina Santangelo swished a shot from beyond the three-point arc.
At that point, however, Liberty went cold.
A number of Patriot possessions came up empty either on turnovers or shots that failed to find the mark.
Marysville took advantage and closed the deficit to 38-32 on buckets by Cook, and the Lee sisters, Sydney and Kass.
Olentangy Liberty’s cold spell ended when Sarah Balliett hit a pair of charity tosses with 2:23 remaining in the third quarter.
Kelly Levering scored twice and Trinity Ramos sank a pair of free throws to send Liberty into the fourth quarter with a 47-34 advantage.
“We got the score down to six points, but lost our focus,” said Young.
“We committed some turnovers and Liberty took advantage of them.”
The Patriots also exploited open gaps in the Lady Monarchs’ perimeter defense.
Levering and Pifher were both deadly from beyond the arc.
As such, Liberty’s lead suddenly jumped to 58-36 and the visitors were never again threatened.
“Once we got down by 16, we lost some energy and couldn’t come back,” said Young.
Despite the loss, the coach saw some things upon which the Lady Monarchs can build.
“We can build on playing four quarters with a consistent level of energy,” she said. “We can also build upon the fact we were patient with the basketball at times this evening.”
The Lady Monarchs will return to the court on Friday when they travel to Central Crossing.
Olentangy Liberty
Levering 10-0-24, Rich 9-2-20, Pifher 3-2-10, Ramos 2-3-7, Santangelo 1-0-3, Balliett 0-2-2, Hummell 1-0-2, C. Mrukowski 0-1-1, M. Mrukowski 0-0-0, Splain 0-0-0, Marston 0-0-0. Totals 26-10-69.
Three-point goals: Levering 4, Pifher 2.
Marysville
Graves 4-0-12, S. Lee 4-0-8, Cook 2-0-5, Cotner 2-0-4, K. Lee 2-0-4, Sloan 1-1-3, Strahm 1-0-3, Sutter 1-0-2, Hazelbaker 0-0-0, Williams 0-0-0. Totals 17-1-41.
Three-point goals: Graves 4, Cook 1, Strahm 1.
The Lady Monarch jayvees upped their record to 5-0 with a 43-35 triumph during the preliminary game.
Abbey Williams led the Jr. Monarchs with 12 points and Leah Brown added 10.