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Suffocating defense and a team-oriented approach on offense was more than enough to earn the Olmsted Falls girls basketball team a return trip to the state final four.
After finishing second in the state last year in Division I, the Bulldogs are going back to Dayton as after their dominant 61-34 victory over Massillon Jackson in a Division I regional final Saturday afternoon at Sandusky High School. Olmsted Falls will face the winner of Saturday night’s regional final between host Medina and Magnificat. The state semifinal will be at 6 p.m. on Friday, March 15 at the University of Dayton Arena.
“I don’t know how many people outside of our camp thought this was going to happen, but we sure believed it would,” said Olmsted Falls coach Jordan Eaton.
The Olmsted Falls offense caught many people off-guard, as leading scorer Danielle Cameron was held to just five points, with all five coming in the first half. Jackson’s defense was obviously designed to limit the first team all-district player who averaged better than 20 points per game this season. But all that did was open other doors.
“I know that people want to take Danielle out of the game,” Eaton said. “I just haven’t seen that be a successful strategy for other teams. I get it. I would probably do the same thing. But we play 10 people, and those people can contribute, and they know that they’re supposed to contribute.”
“The best thing that Danielle does is that she doesn’t force the issue. If you faceguard somebody it leaves a lot of space open. That makes it a 4-on-4 game, and 4-on-4 is difficult to guard. That’s leaves a lot of open space for the offense.”
In the absence of the usual scoring from Cameron, who will play at Youngstown State next year, junior Maddie Cerovac stepped up with a game-high 18 points, while Jessica Wolanin added 15 points on five 3-pointers, and sophomore Jesse Simon had 10 points.
“Our team has always stressed not how many points you score but just getting the job done at the end of the day,” Cameron said. Today, my teammates really stepped up. Jess was on fire, Maddie was getting to the basket, Jesse was running floor, Emily (Scina) was playing great defense, and the bench gave us energy. I can score points, but it’s not necessary every time. My teammates are all capable of doing everything on the floor as well.”“
The Bulldogs made 10 3-pointers, with Wolanin leading the way with five, including three in a row in a stretch of 2 minutes, 12 seconds in the third period that broke the game wide open. Also connecting from beyond the arc were Cerovac with three and Cameron and Scina with one each.
“Even though (Danielle’s) not hitting shots, I know other people are willing to step up and we’re all capable,” Wolanin said. “We get in the gym every single day and work together and put shots up. We know that if Danielle’s not shooting well or not taking a lot of shots, other people are going to step up.”
As good as Olmsted Falls was on offense, the Bulldogs were even better on defense. Jackson entered the game averaging better than 50 points per game, but with 2:43 left in the final period, the Polar Bears had only 27.
“I’m very proud of our kids for defending the way that they do,” Eaton said. “It’s not easy. We really work at it. They trust the game plan a lot. Sometimes when it’s not going well, they still trust it and in the long run it ends up working out.”
The first quarter was a tight affair for much of the period, with the Bulldogs clinging to a 10-8 lead with just over 2 minutes remaining. However, Olmsted Falls hit one of its patented runs and jumped to a 25-13 lead late in the second quarter. Playing an aggressive man-to-man defense, the Bulldogs forced nine turnovers in the second period and ended the half with a 28-15 lead.
But the Bulldogs knew they wouldn’t be able to cruise to victory. In Wednesday’s regional semifinal victory over Whitehouse Anthony Wayne, Jackson overcame a 10-point halftime deficit, so Olmsted Falls knew what it had to do in the second half.
“At halftime we talked about how we can’t let our foot off the gas,” Scina said. “We knew they were going to want it and we had to want it more than them. We practice our defense so much. We just want to make sure that they don’t get anything easy on offense. So, the pressure was huge.”
With Wolanin hitting her three consecutive bombs, the lead was up to 38-19, but Jackson hit consecutive 3-pointers to cut it to 38-25. Olmsted Falls answered with a 20-2 run to balloon the margin up to 58-27, and that was it.
