NANKIN — Mapleton entered its Division III sectional semifinal Wednesday night with a reputation for having a shutdown defense.
Unfortunately for the Mounties, visiting Northwestern wanted to see what it felt like for themselves.
After allowing the most points per game of any Wayne County Athletic League team in the regular season, the Huskies locked down defensively when it mattered most, outscoring Mapleton 16-5 in the fourth quarter of a 54-42 triumph.
The Mounties (14-9) entered the night having won six of their last seven and had beaten Northwestern (8-15) on the same floor Jan. 6, 57-53. But the Huskies rode masterful performances from senior college-bound players Caydence Scale (22 points) and Lilly Wakefield (20 points, 16 rebounds) to advance to play Saturday at defending district champion Warrensville Heights (19-2).
“We’ve been working hard on our defense, especially this week,” first-year Huskies coach Andrew Nicholson said. “We knew we had to shut them down and we haven’t done that (to other teams) this year. … Tonight was finally what we were after.”
Mapleton took its first lead of the game in the third quarter and moved ahead 37-33 when senior Kirsten Flora scored off a pass from sophomore Audrey Hellickson with 2:41 left in the period.
But from there, the Huskies went on a 13-0 run that bridged the third and fourth quarters, with Scale notching eight points (four off a pair of steals) in the spurt by herself.
Hellickson (team-high 12 points) hit a 3-pointer from the left wing with 4:34 to play to stop that surge and cut the MHS deficit to 46-40. But the Mounties didn’t make another field goal in the fourth quarter.
“The first time we played them we didn’t play any better defense than we did today, but we shot the ball better,” third-year Mapleton coach Daryl Young said. “We had open looks, we had open shots and they didn’t fall for us. Some nights you’ll have that.”
Outside of the critical late scoring lapse, the key stretch for the Mounties came in the first half.
Scale, who Nicholson said has roughly 1,200 career points and will finish Top 3 in scoring in NHS history, picked up her third foul less than five minutes into the game.
At that point, the Huskies had an 11-3 lead, and Nicholson sat his star guard (averaging 19.1 points per game) for the rest of the half. Despite Northwestern scoring just six points in the second quarter (all from Wakefield), Mapleton could only manage a 24-24 tie heading into halftime.
Scale, who netted 31 against the Mounties in their first meeting, returned to score 15 of her game-high 22 points after intermission. And with Wakefield logging at least four points and three rebounds in every quarter, it didn’t matter that no other NHS player had more than five points.
“The game plan was to try to contain Scale and keep her below her average and, with Wakefield inside, to keep the ball out of her hands,” Young said. “We didn’t succeed really in either of those.”
Mapleton flashed plenty of its defensive prowess throughout the game, scrapping and swarming the Huskies to force 12 turnovers in the first half.
Hellickson and seniors Heidi Earl and Brinlee Youngen seemed to be all over the floor defensively. Flora (eight points) and junior post Hailey Bergosh (six points) also did what they could to hold down the Bluffton College-bound Wakefield, who has fully recovered from a knee injury after playing sparingly earlier in the season.
Young said it was his team’s scrappy play that held it in games all season.
“We fight and hustle for the ball and that’s what I’m proud of with the girls is their effort,” he said.
The 12-point loss actually tied for Mapleton’s second-largest margin of defeat all season and it was the first time the Huskies won a game when scoring fewer than 57 points (had been 0-14 in such games).
Northwestern had also entered the night just 3-9 on the road. Nicholson credited his younger players for holding his team in it while Scale — who he said is getting looks from the University of Mount Union, among others — sat in foul trouble.
“We knew we were hurting (with Scale out) and our younger girls went out and played defensively for us,” the coach said. “That’s what we needed to do — we just were trying to get to halftime and get back on our feet a little bit.
“Coach (Young) has done a really nice job and we knew it would be a tough game. We were just hoping to survive, really.”
Youngen (eight points) and Earl (five) had been two of the Mounties’ consistent offensive threats this season, but neither scored after halftime.
It was a frustrating finish to an otherwise standout season for Mapleton, which had held teams below 40 points in 14 of its games this season.
The Mounties finished 10-4 in Firelands Conference play, good for third place and tied for their best record in the league since they last won it in 1999.
“I’m very proud of the 14 wins that we got this season,” said Young, a 1987 Mapleton graduate who won state titles in 2011 and 2014 in Arizona while leading the Gilbert Christian High School team. “This is not how we would like to leave our home gym on the last night, but I don’t think the girls held anything back. They were out there working as hard as they could trying to make plays and that’s all you can ask for.”
All four seniors — Earl, Flora, Youngen and Maggie Hellickson — were also on the team two years ago that went 17-7 and made the district semifinals in Young’s first season at the helm. Earl plans to play college softball while Youngen is signing to play soccer at Lake Erie College.
“I hope there’s some hunger in the younger girls coming up that see this and are excited about it,” Young said. “That’s what you always want, to get some of that excitement that will lead to a larger commitment.”
