Seniors refuse to go quietly in regular season finale
“Everybody got their money’s worth, that’s important, I guess,” said Orrville head coach Mark Alberts Sr., while Snyder added, “I think this [Senior Night] was better, going out with a win against a hard team in double-overtime. You’re going to remember that. I’ll remember that forever and I’m sure the younger kids will too.”
And as Asche downed a piece of cake while talking with the media at the end of the game, it was a reminder that it’s nice to save the best for last, as the West Holmes faithful were treated to the most exciting game of the 2010-11 regular season, thanks to an assist from Mother Nature, who dumped snow all over the originally scheduled Jan. 20 date between the Lady Knights and Lady Red Riders, setting the stage for the rescheduled season-ending thriller.
But following the emotional on court Senior Night pregame festivities – during which Asche was joined by her parents, Gary and Cindy Asche, and was read a message written by West Holmes head coach Lisa Patterson, telling the 5-foot-7-inch guard, and 3-point shooting specialist she would be one of the most remembered players in Lady Knights history; and during which Snyder was joined by her parents, Kirk and Shane Snyder, and told by Patterson to put the dancing lessons from her childhood to good use by leading West Holmes to “The Big Dance” – the game started out as anything but a thriller.
In fact, West Holmes (17-2) (14-0) and Orrville (14-4) (9-4) combined to miss eight shots to start the game and didn’t put any points on the board until the 5:15 mark of the opening period.
And even then it was just a single point, as Orrville sophomore guard Hannah Plybon opened the scoring by drawing a foul from West Holmes freshman guard Paiten Strother on a drive to the bucket, splitting a pair from the line.
That allowed another 53 seconds to tick off the clock before the lid was lifted off the baskets for the game’s first field goal, when West Holmes sophomore guard Justice Wright hit Laina Snyder with a lob pass on the right side of the baseline and the freshman forward bounced a pass through the lane to setup her older sister for a layup and a 2-1 Lady Knights lead.
Following three consecutive turnovers and a miss from beyond the three-point arc by West Holmes sophomore guard Rachelle Morrison, Sara Aultz stood with the ball in her hands ready to transition the Lady Red Riders from defense to offense, but the 6-foot-2-inch Orrville senior had her pass picked off by Morrison, who dropped in an easy layup to put the Lady Knights up 4-1.
That was the last lead West Holmes would enjoy until the first overtime session after Plybon answered from the top right side of the three-point arc, to knot things up at four, and sophomore guard Maggie Davault drove the right side of the lane for a layup and a 6-4 Orrville lead after quarter number one—a quarter extended several minutes when Strother and Plybon chased a loose ball into the corner next to the Orrville bench, causing Plybon to collide with the Lady Red Riders’ Gatorade cooler, turning it upside down and dumping five gallons of water on the corner of the floor.
The offense in quarter number two would continue to be nearly as empty as Orrville’s water supply, as the two teams would only combine for 12 more points, with the senior Snyder sister putting up another layup under the bucket, and the senior Plybon sister – 5-foot-11-inch center Hillary Plybon – responding with a layup at the other end to open the scoring.
West Holmes would get two more buckets from Lindsy Snyder by the end of the quarter and Orrville would get a stick back layup from the older Plybon sister, to go along with two free throw makes from the younger, as the two teams went into the break with the Lady Red Riders clinging to a 12-10 lead after an abysmal shooting half during which West Holmes’ 21 misses far outweighed their five makes, and Orrville’s 4-of-16 shooting was only slightly better.
“It wasn’t exactly a shooting clinic tonight, on our part,” lamented Patterson after the game. “We certainly didn’t shoot well, especially early.
“They packed it in [the middle] because we were 0-for-9 the first half from threes, so if I were coaching against us I would do the same thing. There was a lot of ‘physicalness’ on the inside.”
But despite the physical inside play, eight of West Holmes’ 10 first-half points came down low from the 6-foot Lindsy Snyder, who would watch 5-foot-9-inch Hannah Plybon muscle up two shots under the basket to open the second-half scoring, before the Orrville sophomore ripped down one of her team-leading nine rebounds and went coast-to-coast for a layup and an 18-10 Orrville lead.
The Red Riders would extend their lead to 10, at 22-12, when the younger Plybon would follow two more points from the charity stripe with another layup from under the bucket, but West Holmes would go on an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 22-20, sparked by a triple-make from Wright, who connected from the top right side of the arc to end an 0-for-15 three-point drought by West Holmes.
“Justice finally got the lid off on that one, and then it was like everybody just relaxed,” said Patterson afterward. “Once it finally went through the hole, everybody relaxed and played like they normally play.”
That meant another triple make, from freshman point guard Emily Molnar, and a running jumper off the glass from Laina Snyder before the end of the period, making the score 25-22 in favor of Orrville heading into the final eight minutes of regulation.
“I told the girls at halftime, I think if we can get to 30 [points], we can win,” said Alberts after the game.
Unfortunately for Alberts and company, when Wright connected for her second triple-make, with 3:53 left to play, it tied the game at 29, and that’s how it would stay until the end of regulation as West Holmes would miss five shots and commit one turnover before the final buzzer and Orrville would commit three turnovers, miss a field goal attempt, and come up empty from the charity stripe when Aultz missed the front end of a one-and-one bonus.
“Obviously the key was the free throw line for us,” said Alberts after watching his team shoot just 8-of-13 from the line, including 8-of-12 free throw shooting by Hannah Plybon who would finish the game with 23 of her team’s 36 points. “If we shoot 100 percent tonight, we win.”
Patterson could have easily answered, “If we shoot 100 percent, we win by seven instead of two,” but choosing to deal in reality rather than hypothetical she said simply, “Our free throws, we made them when it mattered, we made them when it mattered.”
And free throws really started to matter in the overtime periods as Molnar gave West Holmes its first lead since the first quarter, at 32-29, when she drained a triple-try from beyond the top left of the arc, before Aultz answered with a stick back and Hannah Plybon got to the free throw line with 29 seconds remaining and a chance to win the game.
When Plybon missed the back end of the one-and-one and Molnar’s jumper at the other end of the court was off the mark at the buzzer, the clock was rewound to four minutes for overtime number two, during which Wright drew Hillary Plybon’s fifth foul while trying to launch a 3-point bomb from the left side, sending the senior from Orrville to the bench and sending the sophomore from West Holmes to the line, where she drained two-of-three.
Wright fouled Hannah Plybon at the other end and the Orrville sophomore split from the line again, making the score 34-33 in favor of West Holmes.
Davault fouled Molnar at the other end and the West Holmes freshman coolly drained a pair from the line to push the lead back out to 36-33 with 1:20 showing on the clock.
“You have to be smart about everything you do,” explained Molnar after going 1-for-2 on her next trip to the line to finish 3-of-4 for the game and give West Holmes a 37-35 lead with 46.5 seconds to go. “When you go to the free throw line it’s a matter of routine, of not getting nervous and not giving into the pressure.”
But nerves and pressure seemed to continue to plague Hannah Plybon, who used a spin move to draw a foul from Strother at the 16.4 mark, missing her first attempt, splitting the pair and leaving Orrville trailing 37-36.
Cue the big finish, started of course from the free throw line, where Laina Snyder missed the second of two with 10.7 seconds showing, allowing Lindsy Snyder to clean the glass with her 13th rebound before getting tied up by two Orrville players and turning the ball back over to the Red Riders on the possession arrow.
Streaking down the middle of the court with under eight seconds to play on the ensuing inbounds play, Hannah Plybon was caught from behind by Molnar who tipped the ball ahead just outside the three point arc, forcing Plybon and sophomore guard Jacque Ray to dive on the floor after the loose ball in the paint, along with Asche and Molnar, eventually kicking the ball out to the left side for a last second jumper by sophomore guard Abby Reusser that missed the mark, causing an eruption from the fans on the home side of the Dungeon and bringing the curtain down on the home playing careers of Asche and Lindsy Snyder in dramatic fashion.
“Good teams find a way to win,” explained Patterson afterward. “The last couple of huddles there, that’s what I said, ‘Whoever has the biggest desire to win this game is who’s going to come out on top.”
Talking about a little extra motivation on a special night, Wright said, “We wanted to do it for our seniors, last game at home.”
But that wasn’t the only motivating factor that ultimately pushed the Lady Knights over the top.
“We unite on the floor and we all go for a common goal,” explained Molnar, who finished with nine points, to go along with a team-leading 10 from Lindsy Snyder, nine from Laina Snyder and eight from Wright. “We all wanted that game. We all wanted to be undefeated OCC champions, undefeated at home, we wanted it.”
Added Laina Snyder, “I think we had more heart in it and I think it had a lot to do with Senior Night, but I think it had a lot to do with other things too – just the desire to be 14-0 and be undefeated at home.
“This is a nice game to remember, my last game at home with Lindsy.”
But this wasn’t the final game together for Snyder, Snyder and company as the Lady Knights get ready to open sectional tournament play Monday, Feb. 21 against Coshocton, at Tri-Valley High School in Dresden, starting on a journey they hope ends down in Columbus next month.
And if the win over Orrville was exciting, perhaps even more important was what the Lady Knights performance tells people about the maturation and intelligence of this team.
Comparing the final offensive numbers from the game against Orrville with those put up by the Lady Knights during their first loss of the season, 39-24 at River View back on Jan. 10, there are some glaring similarities that stick out.
Against River View, the Lady Knights shot just 8-of-46 from the field, compared to 14-of-61 against Orrville.
During both contests, West Holmes launched 25 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc, connecting on only one against River View and just four against the Lady Red Riders.
And while they hit 7-of-8 free throw attempts against the Lady Black Bears down in Warsaw, the Lady Knights connected on only 6-of-11 from the charity stripe versus Orrville.
West Holmes didn’t know how to recover from their poor shooting performance against River View, eventually wilting under the pressure and falling by 15.
But not only do good teams find a way to win close ball games, they learn and grow from their setbacks.
So 35 days after losing to River View and just minutes after beating Orrville, Lindsy Snyder explained, “I think even though we weren’t shooting, obviously in River View we shot terrible, but I think we all realized we can’t lose like that again just because our shooting is off. We played defense. We hustled. We rebounded. We did all the things that we can control. You can’t always control shooting, but we can control how hard we play and I think we did control that and we played a lot harder and with more heart.”
Spoken like a true senior.
Published: February 15, 2011
