NEW WASHINGTON — The Arrows removed the suspense early from their Division III district semifinal Wednesday, and now they hope their sequel with Norwalk turns into a thriller.
Fueled by a 22-5 run to close out the first half, Ashland rolled to a 55-32 victory over Tiffin Columbian at Buckeye Central.
The win sends the second-seeded Arrows (19-5) back to Buckeye Central at noon Saturday to face top-seeded Norwalk (22-2), which beat Sandusky 63-54 in Wednesday’s late matchup.
The Truckers crushed Ashland in its season-opening game, 59-25, an outcome AHS coach Renee Holt said has lingered in the back of her team’s mind ever since.
“Since that was the very first game of the season, it will be cool for us to see them again and see our growth and see how we’ve developed over the year,” Holt said. “It will be a fun matchup; what a cool opportunity for Ashland basketball to be in the district championship game.”
The Arrows’ only other appearance in a district title game in the last 30-plus years came in 2013, a 51-33 loss to Perrysburg.
It had been more than a week since either team had played. Ashland received a forfeit win over a Mansfield Senior squad riddled with sickness in what would have been a sectional final while the Tornadoes (13-10) had a bye to Wednesday’s game.
Columbian was within 10-7 early before Ashland exploded to score the final 11 points of the first quarter. The Arrows got six points each from sophomore Kennedy Lacey and junior Camryn Cox in the opening eight minutes, as five AHS players were on the board to make it 21-7 entering the second quarter.
By the time the game hit halftime, Ashland had a 32-12 lead, as junior Grace Tobias notched five of her nine points in the second quarter to help spread things out.
“I thought our first half, defensively and offensively, we just clicked together,” Holt said. “That’s cool to see, especially after the big layoff.
“Defensively, we were in help, we were talking and we were capitalizing off their turnovers. That’s big for us because we want to get out and run and play fast, and it starts on the defensive side.”
Columbian outscored Ashland 11-7 in the third quarter to slice the deficit to 39-23, but only four of those points came on field goals, and Lacey was gearing up for a big fourth quarter to finish it off.
The sophomore dropped in nine of her season-high 23 points in the final period. She did so despite having picked up her third foul just 30 seconds into the second half.
“We made some adjustments in our offense and Kennedy was able to attack downhill,” Holt said. “She got some (offensive rebounds) and just had an all-around great game, and that was playing with three fouls there for a while.
“I gave her a chance there in the third quarter (to stay in the game) and told her to be smart, and she went in there and played like an upperclassman tonight.”
The huge night also sent Lacey past 700 points for her career, something no Arrow has done since Alyssa Steury in 2019.
The sophomore already ranks 14th in AHS history in career points.
“That’s the work she put in in the offseason,” Holt said. “She’s in the weight room, she’s in the gym and she’s working every single day.”
Lacey also helped limit District 6 first-teamer Abbie Felske to just a fourth-quarter field goal and five points in the game.
Columbian District 6 second-teamers Marissa Allen (eight points) and Mia Zeis (two) combined for just 10 points as well, and Ashland improved to 15-0 when scoring 45 or more points.
“(Cox) did awesome down low finishing around the rim and Cici (Steury) played great defense on one of their top shooters,” Holt said. “The past two weeks we’ve been putting in work with our defense and I finally saw the next step of where I want this program to get to.
“We did the right things tonight, and that’s tournament basketball.”
Senior Lauren Green added seven points for Ashland, which before Wednesday had just one tournament win on the court since 2017.
Now, the Arrows get the rematch with Norwalk they have been thinking about since their meeting back on Nov. 22.
The Truckers feature their third 1,000-point scorer in Abby Koenig and are ranked No. 7 in Division III in the MaxPreps state poll.
Norwalk shared the SBC Lake Division title after splitting with Bellevue (23-1), ranked No. 1 in Division IV.
To compare common opponents with Ashland, the Truckers beat Columbian in the regular season by counts of 48-35 and 48-32, and also knocked off Lexington (65-46) and Madison (48-33) from the Ohio Cardinal Conference.
A victory Saturday for the Arrows would tie the program record for single-season wins (20) and would give them their first district title since 1979.
