NEW PHILADELPHIA — The Ashland High School girls basketball program officially has the fifth member of its 1,000-point club.
It couldn’t have come at a better time.
In a showdown of the top two teams in the Ohio Cardinal Conference on Thursday, the Arrows trailed New Philadelphia inside the final three minutes.
Down 32-31, junior guard Kennedy Lacey grabbed a steal, then rattled home a jumper in the lane for No. 1,000 to give Ashland a lead it would not relinquish in a 39-34 win.
Lacey, an All-Ohioan and the reigning OCC Player of the Year, finished with 13 points — nearly 10 below her season average of 22.6 per game.
But in a game between league heavyweights, she and the Arrows (12-1, 8-0 OCC) were able to grind down the Quakers (12-2, 7-2) in the home stretch to capture a two-game lead in the loss column in conference play.
“In the first half I really couldn’t find my shot; they weren’t falling,” said Lacey, who made just two shots from the field in the first three quarters. “I was looking to drive (but couldn’t score much), so it was definitely a hard-fought 13 points that I had out there.
“I wasn’t aiming to get the 1,000 points, I wanted to win — that was my No. 1 thing. So I wasn’t trying to hog the ball or anything like that, I was just trying to make sure we got the best shots possible and win the game.”
Ashland was playing in its first full game without senior sharpshooter Madison Hoffman, who suffered a knee injury in the fourth quarter of the team’s first loss of the season Saturday against Waynedale.
Arrows head coach Renee Holt said Hoffman — an All-Ohioan with 740 career points and 96 career 3-pointers — will not play again this season.
In her absence, junior guards Josie Vantilburg and Cici Steury both hit huge shots from the perimeter, each dropping in three buckets from downtown.
Vantilburg, who had just 26 total points in the first 12 games this season, scored all of her career-high 13 points in the second half.
That outburst included a 3-pointer from the left corner that pulled AHS within 32-31 in the fourth, then a 2-for-2 trip to the free-throw line with 11.3 seconds remaining for the game’s final margin.
Holt said it was one of many clutch performances for her squad. She also noted Steury and Grace Tobias, along with the efforts off the bench from Kaya Hendershott and Megan Ediger while starting post player Camryn Cox dealt with foul trouble.
“I felt like everything was against us,” Holt said. “To come off that hard loss against Waynedale, then losing Hoffman. We were down kids, but the kids stepped up and that was a heck of a win.
“I think every coach every season deals with some type of adversity, but it was cool how our kids responded. Everything was stacked against us and they came out and it was all heart from the whole team. … We took a big step tonight.”
Steury hit a pair of her treys in the second quarter, which kept the Arrows within 17-15 of the hosts at intermission. Lacey had Ashland’s only two other field goals before halftime, and the squad led 25-24 entering the fourth.
New Philadelphia, which received a team-high 13 points from Abbey Sweitzer, came into the night riding its second six-game winning streak of the season.
But after pushing ahead 32-28 in the fourth quarter, the Quakers were outscored 11-2 the rest of the way.
The slow-down, half-court style of contest was the type Holt said has been tougher for her team.
It was the first time this season AHS was held below 42 points. The Arrows had been 2-7 in their previous nine games when scoring fewer than 45 points dating back to the start of last season.
“That Waynedale game was a reality check,” Holt said. “It woke us up on what we needed to work on, what our weaknesses were.”
The coach said it was a big motivator to have Hoffman cheering from the bench Thursday. Lacey said it was a big change, too.
“Playing without her was a difficult challenge, I think for everybody,” Lacey said. “You don’t have your best shooter, but going forward, we can definitely learn a lot from this game. … I know we’ll just keep getting better.”
After Lacey hit the 1,000-point milestone on her go-to jumper in the lane, the game was halted. She was congratulated by her teammates and Ashland athletic director Jason Goings, then took some quick photos with her parents, Kevin and Bridgit Lacey, at half-court.
She is the first 1,000-point scorer in six seasons as a head coach for Holt, who herself scored more than 1,000 at both Crestview High School and Ashland University.
Lacey trails only Kylie Radebaugh (1,150), Taylor Rogers (1,068), Alyssa Steury (1,060) and Alexis Stoops (1,040) in AHS history.
“There’s a lot of pressure on you as a player and I knew she was feeling a little bit of that pressure tonight to finally get over that hump,” Holt said. “That kid has worked her butt off, especially this past offseason, to improve her game. Her 3-point shot, her left-hand (skills) — across the board, she has just taken that next step.”
The Arrows are in the midst of a four-game stretch of road games, which will continue Saturday in a league tilt at Wooster (8-5, 5-3 OCC). The Generals are 6-1 in their last seven games, including a 54-37 win at New Philadelphia on Dec. 17.
Ashland will follow that matchup with road outings at Tri-Valley (9-5) on Monday and Lexington (1-13, 1-7 OCC) on Wednesday before their next home game Jan. 24 against New Philadelphia.