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The Ohio State Girls Varsity Basketball Tournament started this week, and The #3 seed Midview Middies hosted the #12 Westlake Lady Demons on Thursday night.
The scoring started early as Midview Sophomore Guard/ Forward Olivia DiFranco hit a three from the right side. She was sensational all night, and has been improving, and exuding confidence as the season has progressed. The other force for the Middies is Junior Center Mary Meng.
She’s 6-4 and very physical, and athletic, which usually means a rough night for the opposing team. No one on the Demons could approach her dominating defense, rebounds, and blocks. Meng had a put back, and a right handed layup in the first. She also had two blocks on straight possessions late in the quarter.
On the Demon’s side of the ball, Senior Forward Katie Whitesell had a nice quarter and game for Westlake. She had a beautiful layup, and an and one in the quarter. The score at the end of the first was 17 to 9, Middies lead.
Westlake came alive in the second quarter. Better shooting, and better defense will do that. Offensively the continued great play of Whitesell stood out, as she hit a couple of sweet right handed layups.
Westlake had a total of 15 points for the quarter as an impressive five players scored in the second.
The Lady Middies played pretty well in the second quarter, with Sophomore Guard Erica Baldoza hitting a layup from the right, and Senior Leader Grace Milano hit a three from the left wing.
Midview scored 11, and the half time score was Midview 28, Westlake 24. The Lady Demons were definitely in this game. Their amped up D against the Middies in the late quarter had a huge effect.
In the third quarter, Meng seemed to sense her teammates needed some offense from her. She went to work with an inside bucket, and a put back. She had six for the quarter. DiFranco also kept up the offensive pressure as she quickly and fearlessly attacked the basket probably 70% of the time. She gets fouled a lot in many games, and in this game made 9-11 from the line. All most teams can do is foul her, but she makes them pay at the stripe.
For the Demons it was more of Abbie G and a couple of threes from Freshman Guard Ella Henton from the top of the key, and a very deep trey from Junior Forward Morgan Kress from the left wing. Both teams scored 12 points in the third, and the game was 40-36, Midview.
Going into the fourth quarter, the Demons knew they had a chance to knock off the Mighty Middies. They would have to play one of their best quarters of their season. Defensively, they held their own, but the scoring attack completely disappeared. It took the Westlake Girls almost half of the fourth to score, and it was Whitesell again who was able to get the Demons on the scoreboard.
They got better shooting and were offensively more aggressive in the latter part of the quarter. Freshman Benton again hit a sweet three pointer from the top of the key, and soon after the Demons got the score down to six at 2:02.
Midview’s Meng blocked Whitesell under the hoop with just under a minute to go. Down the stretch Meng and DiFranco made back to back perfect one and ones. Late in the game when Westlake had to foul, the Dynamic Duo made the big foul shots. Olivia DiFranco had 25 of the Middie’s 55 points. She and Meng are among some of the best players in Northeast Ohio.
Midview amped up their defensive intensity in the early fourth, and then coasted to a relatively easy victory. Westlake played really hard, and never gave up in any way, but the Midview Middies we’re just too much to handle. Final score was Midview 55, and Westlake 48.
