Visiting New Philadelphia staged a third quarter rally to clinch the East Central Ohio League title with a 54-36 victory over Cambridge in action inside Gene Ford Gymnasium on Wednesday evening.
Following the first half of play, the Lady Bobcats held a slim 22-21 lead despite struggling with ball security in the first half with 15 turnovers.
"That was incredible to have the lead at halftime," CHS head coach Dan Linscott offered. "I thought our kids showed a lot of resiliency in the first half and we matched New Philadelphia’s energy. It would have been real easy to throw in the towel with all the turnover issues."
Senior Lilly Ritz led the Lady Bobcats’ scoring in the opening half with 12 points, with sophomore Khloe Taylor chipping in with five points.
But in the third quarter, the Lady Quakers made their move by outscoring CHS by a 20-10 margin to take control of the ECOL tilt with a 41-32 lead entering the final quarter.
Aaliyah Currence paced the New Philadelphia surge with a total of 13 points in the frame, hitting on a sizzling 6-of-7 shots from the field.
"Their defensive pressure caused us more trouble in the second half," Linscott continued. "They put a lot of ball pressure on us and took a lot of things away from us and got us going east to west instead of north and south."
"I think there are some things we can do better, and next time we meet them if both teams are fortunate to get there it will be for the right to go to state," the Lady Bobcats’ coach stated. "They deserve it they are perfect in the ECOL and we are right behind them looking up. But they earned it by beating us twice, so it is what it is."
Cambridge would finish the night with a total of 25 turnovers in the loss, compared to just 12 for the Lady Quakers.
With the victory, the Lady Quakers improved to a perfect 13-0 mark to clinch the ECOL championship after shaking off the slow start.
"We had a rough shooting night, especially in that first half," New Philadelphia head coach Tracy Pane explained. "But we finally got it together in that third quarter and got after it more and it worked in our favor."
"Clinching the ECOL is another step in accomplishing a team goal," Pane added. "We have one more ECOL game and then we will set our sights on the tournament."
New Philadelphia closed out the comeback win by outscoring the host Lady ‘Cats by a 13-4 count in the final eight minutes of play.
Ritz led the Lady Bobcats (16-3, 10-3 ECOL) with another solid outing finishing with 18 points, along with 12 rebounds and three blocked shots. Taylor contributed 11 points, including a perfect 7-for-7 effort from the charity stripe with seven rebounds.
Currence finished with a monster night for New Philadelphia (19-2 overall) with a game-high 27 points with 10 rebounds, while the duo of Julia Ress and Kate McEwan each tallied eight points for the winners.
"We have to put this game in the rear view window, we have an important game on Saturday," Linscott said. "We get to play for an OVAC championship Saturday, and that’s a banner we don’t have hanging in the gym. I’m confident we will bounce back from tonight and be ready to go Saturday."
NEXT — Cambridge will now take on No. 2 seed Buckeye Local in Class 4A championship game Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Ohio University Eastern.