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Story by Joe Magill
The competition is certainly going to get tougher in the coming weeks, but the Medina Bees have been quite impressive in their first two Division I tournament games.
Medina (20-4) is seeded eighth in the Northeast District and has outscored its first two opponents, 148-45, including Thursday’s 69-26 drubbing of visiting Wooster in a sectional final that nearly had a running clock in the first half. While the two tournament games weren’t competitive, the Bees used them as preparation for what is hoped to be a run to the regional tournament and possibly beyond.
“We came out with a lot of energy and intensity,” said Medina coach Karen Kase. “We were all over the place with a lot of deflections and hustle plays. There were some fouls mixed in, too, but that’s how we wanted to set the tone because that’s what we need to do later.”
Next up for Medina is a district semifinal at Ravenna High School on Feb. 27 against Hudson, which completed its second upset of the tournament on Thursday, topping No. 14 seed Madison, 68-40.
“We need to repeat the energy and the intensity and the confidence,” Kase said. “We have confidence already, but this helps. We’re on a tournament run, and we want to keep it rolling. You can’t necessarily do that in practice, but you can have good practices and work hard and do the right things and sharpen up. That’s what we’re working on doing.”
Medina never trailed, and while forcing Wooster into 10 turnovers in the first quarter, the Bees held a lead of 19-8 after one period. Midway through the period the Generals cut the deficit to three, but Izzy Kurka, Olivia Klanac and Molly Gilbert his consecutive 3-pointers to help the hosts break away.
The second quarter was a Medina blowout, as Wooster hit a free throw to cut the margin to 19-9 and then watched helplessly as the Bees went on a 25-2 run. By the time the period was over, Medina held a 48-15 lead and was just two points shy of a running clock. Kurka, who led Medina with 18 points—all in the first half—had 13 points in the quarter.
“Izzy obviously played awesome in the first half with her scoring,” Kase said. “We moved the ball better as the first quarter went on and definitely better in the second quarter. They did some of the things that I asked them to do for our tournament run, not just for today.”
Medina’s defense held Wooster to just three points in the third period as the lead reached 45 points at the end of the stanza, 63-18. The running clock started less than 2 minutes into the second half and continued for the rest of the game.
“I don’t think I expected a running clock in this game, necessarily,” said Kase. “I expected us to win as the game went on, but not with a running clock. So, credit to the team defense. I think [Wooster was] better than their record showed. They have some good individual players. We needed to treat this like it was a solid tournament game. That’s why we ran some of our presses and we had our lineups as they were. We need to get ready for whatever’s next.”
In addition to Kurka, Medina also had Klanac reach double figures with 15 points, as did Addy Shook with 11. Wooster was led by Tori Pettorini with 14 points.
