Jackson High School girls basketball's 'magical season' ends in OHSAA regional final loss
SANDUSKY — The Jackson girls basketball team proved it could play from behind and find ways to turn a game around when the Polar Bears' backs are against the wall. An upset of No. 1 seed Anthony Wayne, on Wednesday had provided the latest proof.
Saturday afternoon, though, the Polar Bears were unable to dig out of a first-half deficit in the Division I regional finals at Sandusky High School.
The Bears' season ends with a 61-34 loss to No. 3 Olmsted Falls. The Bulldogs will advance to the state semifinals in Dayton next week.
Jackson was trying to reach the state tournament for the second time in three years, but the Bears couldn't remain in sync offensively. Meanwhile, for the Bulldogs, almost every shot was going in.
The Polar Bears matched up well against Olmsted Falls' top player, Danielle Cameron, a Youngstown State recruit who was held to six points. However, it didn't stop the Bulldogs from knocking down 10 3-pointers in the game.
"To put it simply, they made their shots, and we didn’t make any shots." Jackson coach Anthony Butch said. "That might sound too simplistic, but they made open 3s and we missed open 3s.”
The Bulldogs offset Jackson shutting down Cameron by having three other double-figure scorers — Maddie Cerovac (21 points), Jessica Wolanin (15) and Jesse Simon (10).
“I know people wanted to take out Danielle out of the game," Olmsted Falls coach Jordan Eaton said. "I just haven’t seen that being a successful strategy for other teams.”
The Polar Bears were outscored 13-5 in the second quarter, trailing 28-15 at the half. Soon, they were behind by 20 points in the second half and the Bears didn't have a comeback in them.
Senior guard Megan Campbell was the only Polar Bear to score double figures, finishing with 10 points. Senior Ashley Lahmers and freshman Ashley Helle each scored nine.
"I would imagine us being in the game, but we couldn't make any shots, "Butch said. "The atmosphere, the pressure ... the moment might be big for some of them."
Despite the loss and knowing they'll lose four seniors to graduation, the future can't get much brighter for the Bears. Jackson started two freshmen (Helle, and Lexie Pizor) and a sophomore (Madison Lepley) in going 23-3 this season. The 23 wins are the most in program history and they also won a share of the Federal League title on their way to being a regional runner-up.
“Like I told them in the locker room, one game doesn’t define our season," Butch said. "Years from now, months from now, we’re going to look back at this year and say it was a magical season."
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Jackson girls basketball offense struggles in loss to Olmsted Falls
