Mount Vernon News

Freddies down Redbirds

FREDERICKTOWN — “Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.”

For the second year in a row, the Fredericktown High School girls basketball finished runner up in the race for the Mid-Buckeye Conference title to Utica. The Freddies’ 45-27 win over Loudonville Thursday night ties them for second place at 11-3 with Johnstown.

“That is two years in a row, but I am a firm believer that second is first loser, but I’d rather be second than third,” said Fredericktown head coach Dave Logan.

Loudonville came out strong in the first half, leading by one at the end of the first quarter, 6-5. Fredericktown had a number of open looks and offensive rebounds, but was unable to convert. The Freddies shot just 7-of-22 from the floor in the first half.

“We missed a lot of easy shots and it’s been plaguing us for the first quarter the last few games and then we finally got comfortable and made a few perimeter shots,” said Logan.

Allyn Blakely hit a 3-pointer late in the second quarter to start a 7-0 run on the Redbirds, giving Fredericktown a 16-13 halftime advantage.

“Coach just told us at halftime, we have to start finishing because we were missing everything at the beginning so we just kept our heads in it. We never gave up and came out in the second half a lot better,” said Freddie guard Marki Overholt.

Fredericktown’s late offensive spurt in the second quarter carried over in the second half. Blakely hit a second 3 to get things started before Loudonville’s Becky Orchard picked up two. The Redbirds slowly started to lose their first half momentum, trailing at the end of the third quarter, 29-20.

“We have been able to play one half good all year, but good teams wear on you and that is what they did to us tonight,” said Loudonville head coach Joy Taylor. “We played well for the first half except for the last minute and then the second half, they just wore us down. Our shooting percentage was horrible and defensive rebounding hurt us too, I think, and that is what we have been struggling with all year.”

The Freddies opened up the fourth quarter by scoring 10 unanswered points. Orchard drained a 3-pointer with three minutes left in duration to snap the Freddies 10-0 run. Loudonville ended the evening shooting just 25 percent from the floor.

“I think we do a good job of pushing the pace and I think that is what we got away from, but then we pushed the pace in the second half,” Logan said.

Whitney Levering finished the night with a double-double, scoring 17 points and pulling down 12 rebounds. Courtney Briegel added six points, and Overholt dished out four assists.

For the Redbirds, Orchard shot 50 percent from behind the arc on her way to 10 points. Erin Reynolds attacked the glass, pulling down eight of Loudonville’s 18 rebounds.

The junior varsity game resulted in a low scoring affair with Loudonville pulling ahead in the final seconds for a 16-12 win. At halftime, the game was tied at 8. Fredericktown scored two points in the third quarter to give them a 10-9 lead. The Redbirds outscored the Freddies, 7-2, in the fourth quarter.

Adria Troyer led Fredericktown with four points, and Leanna Salvidar set the pace for Loudonville, scoring seven points.

Both teams go into next weeks competition facing some of their toughest challenges yet. Loudonville heads up the road to play Division I neighbors Mansfield Madison on Tuesday at 6 p.m. Fredericktown hosts defending state champions Jonathan Alder on Tuesday night at 6 p.m.

“It will be a tough challenge but we are looking forward to it. We hopefully will get some good games in here before we go to tournaments,” said Taylor.

“We still have two tough games to play. We have to play Jonathan Alder on Tuesday and Clear Fork on Thursday so it doesn’t get any easier,” said Logan.