ASHLAND — It was the only Ashland team without a conference title in the 2000s and after a heartbreaking overtime loss Thursday to New Philadelphia, the girls basketball squad left nothing to chance Saturday.
With Madison in town, the Arrows raced to a 15-point lead after the first quarter en route to a 54-34 victory and the program’s first outright league crown since 1994-95.
“After Thursday, we talked about, ‘How are we going to respond to this?’ ” fifth-year AHS coach Renee Holt said. “Yeah, we still were sharing the OCC (lead), but we had a really cool opportunity to get it outright.
“I think in that first quarter today, it showed how we were going to respond.”
Ashland (14-4, 10-1 OCC) led the Rams (8-12, 6-6) 21-6 after the first period and took a comfortable 32-11 advantage into halftime. Sophomore guard Cici Steury was a big part of that early gap, scoring seven of her team-high 12 points in the second quarter. She was one of eight Arrows to score and one of four to hit a 3-pointer.
“When she’s getting hot, we’re hard to guard,” Holt said of the sophomore.
Junior guard Madison Hoffman scored all nine of her points in the first quarter, sophomore forward Kennedy Lacey netted 10 and senior forward Brylyn Mottayaw dropped seven in the fourth quarter.
The Rams got nearly all of their scoring from three players, including Maddie Berry (10 points), Caliyah Clapper (10) and Avery O’Brien (8).
It was a huge rebound win for Ashland, which dropped a thrilling, 45-43 overtime outcome Thursday to New Philly (13-6, 8-3) in front of a packed Arrow Arena.
That defeat snapped a nine-game winning streak for AHS and eliminated the team’s chance at a perfect league record.
“Our defense showed up today,” Holt said. “We were getting out, we were running and we were finishing. We finished our open 3s and our layups, and we were rebounding the ball well.
“They were hungry,” Holt added. “You learn more from a loss than you do a win and I think they took that approach. … To see these young kids react the way they did in (Friday’s) practice and today, it was really cool to see their growth.”
Holt and her squad celebrated after the game by cutting down the net not far from the program’s rather barren orange championship banner. There have long been only four girls basketball titles since the team’s first season in 1970-71.
Those championships came in 20-win seasons in 1977-78 and 1978-79, then in back-to-back campaigns in 1993-94 and 1994-95. All of them were long before Ashland joined the OCC in 2003-04.
“I’m really thankful for the opportunity,” Holt said. “Coming out of college, I was a young girl taking over a varsity program and they gave me a chance. Now it’s year five and for me and my staff (Jake Stimpert, Jobe Gray and Kelseigh Wright) to do this, I’m really thankful and blessed.
“It’s cool to see, but it’s also cool to know that we’re not done yet.”
The Arrows have remaining regular-season games against Ontario, Mansfield Senior, Waynedale and Crestview, then have the potential to host a tournament game.
If they’re able to get to 17 wins, it will trail only those league-winning teams from the late 1970s for Ashland’s most victories in a season.
