by Barberton, Ohio – The Hudson Explorers’ incredible run through the postseason continued Tuesday night, as they held off the Wadsworth Grizzlies, 45-43, in the OHSAA Division II Barberton regional semifinal.
It was the third matchup between the two Suburban League conference foes, with Hudson winning the first contest, 39-31 on December 7th, and Wadsworth winning the return matchup, 58-47, on January 11th.
Wadsworth took an early 6-0 lead thanks to a triple from Natalie Moser and a foul on a three point attempts by Natalie McDermitt, who made all three. However, triples from Corinne Stearns and Angelique Pinson would knot the score at 6 a piece.
Nonetheless, Hudson continued to claw their way back into the game thanks to their defense. Wadsworth led 16-10 at the end of the first quarter, and 24-17 at the halftime break. Moser had seven points in the first half, and Lauren Decker had six points.
The Grizzlies led 30-28 heading into the fourth quarter. After trading buckets, Hudson took the lead for the first time in the fourth quarter, thanks to an Erin McCormick triple. Following a Katie Blake triple, Abby Henderson cashed in one of her own, and the Explorers were back on top.
Junior Alora Beh made a pair of huge buckets in the final stanza. The first was a layup to increase the Explorer lead to 38-35, forcing Wadsworth to call a timeout. Beh also made a layup, drawing contact to do so, increasing the lead to 41-35. The Explorers’ lead would increase to 43-35 with 68 seconds to play before Wadsworth made one last ditch comeback attempt. Natalie Moser sank a couple of triples around a pair of Hudson free throws, and the score stood at 45-41 in favor of Hudson with 17 seconds to play.
But the Explorer defense made one last stop to effectively put the game away, despite a Lauren Decker layup for the final margin.
Alora Beh finished with 11 points to lead the Explorers, followed by Erin McCormick with nine, Paige Sutton with eight, and junior Abby Henderson with seven. Hudson advances to the Barberton regional championship where they will take on Anthony Wayne on Friday, February 28th at 7pm.
Wadsworth was led by sophomore Natalie Moser, who finished with 15 points to pace the Grizzlies.
Extended highlights below:
