ELLENBORO, W.Va. — In a shortened basketball season filled with more uncertainty than any before it, a team’s record may not hold as much meaning as usual entering the postseason.
Magnolia coach Meredith Pilant tried to stress this to the Blue Eagles, who won only five of 18 regular season contests.
Evidently, the message was heard loud and clear. Magnolia used a strong defensive effort and dominant rebounding performance to work its way past Ritchie County 53-38 in a Class AA Region I, Section 1 semifinal.
“We’ve talked all week about the postseason is a new season,” Pilant said. “They’ve worked so hard and we’ve seen some real bright spots in the second half of the season. They’re playing a little bit better. We played a very tough schedule this year. We told them to just keep playing and it’ll pay off.”
The victory allows Magnolia (6-13) to play at top-seeded St. Marys in Friday’s sectional title game.
Defense was the story of the opening half for the Blue Eagles, who held the Rebels (11-5) to 1-of-16 shooting in the opening quarter to build an 8-3 lead.
Although Ritchie County generated more offense in the second quarter, it still had difficulty scoring and entered halftime facing a 17-15 deficit after shooting just 6 of 32. The Rebels’ fullcourt pressure gave the Blue Eagles problems, leading to 14 first-half turnovers, which prevented Magnolia from holding a bigger lead.
“I didn’t think the focus was there,” Ritchie coach David McCullough said. “When things went bad, they kept going bad. Magnolia did a good job and did what they needed to do. They took the ball out of the hands of our scorers and they used their height. If you’re going to miss shots, it’s hard to get an offensive rebound in there. That was the biggest thing tonight — we relied too much on the three when we should’ve attacked the foul line area more.”
The Blue Eagles protected the ball much better out of halftime and broke the contest open with a critical 11-0 run early in the third quarter.
After a Sydney Kopshina three-pointer allowed Ritchie to tied it at 18, the Blue Eagles got layups from Jenna Blain, Holland Estep and Mady Winters to match their biggest lead to that point at six with 4:59 left in the period.
The Rebels called a timeout, but it did nothing to change the momentum. Instead, Blain scored inside again and Estep followed with a triple, giving MHS a 29-18 lead with 3:50 remaining in the quarter.
Winters accounted for two more third-quarter field goals to give her six points in the frame, helping Magnolia take a 36-26 lead into the fourth. The Blue Eagles had only one third-quarter turnover.
“We’ve actually struggled coming out in the third quarter,” Pilant said. “It’s been our roughest patch and we normally go on a three-minute spurt where we turn the ball over and tonight they executed in the third quarter. We stressed to them — take care of the basketball and hold them to one shot and they did a great job executing the game plan in the third quarter.”
The Rebels never got the deficit into single digits over the final period, and instead faced a 16-point deficit after the Blue Eagles started the fourth on an 8-2 surge that featured a pair of follow-up baskets from Winters.
In addition to a game-high 16 points, Winters had 12 rebounds in each half to lead all players with 24 boards. Estep also had a double-double and finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds. With 34 combined rebounds, Winters and Estep nearly matched the Rebels’ team total and helped Magnolia control the boards, 55-36.
“Everybody knows who Mady Winters is, so that’s not a surprise,” Pilant said. “But Holland is really coming around. She’s playing aggressive and grabbing everything that comes her way. She’s able to go outside and shoot and she’s able to go inside. It’s hard to stop with her height and her strength.”
Kopshina was Ritchie’s lone double figure scorer with 10 points. Although the Rebels had seven turnovers and forced 21, they couldn’t overcome 15-of-69 shooting in a season-ending setback to a team they beat 48-31 during the regular season.