Division I regional track finals
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On this date in area sports history …
Seventeen years ago on this date, March 6, 1992, the Urbana girls basketball team won the district title. Complete story on the jump.
URBANA REBOUNDS FROM SLUGGISH START
ROLAND, OSTENDORF LEAD THE WAY AS HILLCLIMBES WIN DISTRICT TITLE
By Kim Byrum, Sports writer
VANDALIA - Junior Jannon Roland and freshman understudy Beth Ostendorf may be an Ebony & Ivory tandem, but on court they’re the Doublemint twins. Their inside bankers, driving layins and soft-touch finesse all but indistinguishable.
And beware if their team falters and sputters early, because these twin towers pack a one-two knockout punch that lands opponents on the second-half ropes.
Through four Division II tournament games, they’ve single-handedly outscored the opposing team.
Friday night was more of the same.
“They’re the top players in their class as far as I’m concerned,” Urbana Coach Bill Moss marveled after the pair combined for 56 of the Hillclimbers’ 62 points in a 62-55 district championship win over Cincinnati Northwest at Vandalia-Butler’s Student Activity Center.
Roland, the Division II player of the year in the Southwest District, netted her season average of 29 points, while Ostendorf, a second-team district pick, equalled her career-high 27 to wreak havoc inside for the Knights, who finished 17-7.
“What they do well are the basic things we work on,” Moss added. “We want all our kids to be able to dribble, pass and shoot the ball. If you ever come watch a practice, we don’t work on team stuff, it’s all basic, fundamental skills work.”
The Hillclimbers, 24-0, clinched their third consecutive district crown after trailing 13-1 just four minutes into the game. They face 18-5 Roger Bacon, a 45-35 winner over 20-3 Mason, in a regional semifinal game Tuesday at 6:15 p.m. at Xenia High School.
“I think we were all just nervous; I don’t really know what it was,” pondered Roland, discussing Urbana’s slower-than-molasses start. “We just finally woke up … and we heard about it, too.”
That wake-up call came courtesy of a visibly frustrated Moss, whose club trailed 19-10 after one quarter before going on a 20-10 run to carry an unusually slim 30-29 advantage into intermission.
“He yells a lot, but we don’t take it as yelling,” said Roland, who finished 13 of 20 from the field and, along with Ostendorf’s 11 of 15 clip, helped Urbana to 57 percent shooting. “We listen to what he’s saying and do it. We put the yelling in the back of our minds, because we know he’s yelling because he wants us to play better.”
The Hillclimbers captured their one-point, halftime lead by forcing Northwest into nine second-period turnovers. An accompanying variety of pressure defenses held the Knights scoreless through a critical, five-minute span.
“We just didn’t play real well early,” said Moss, voted News-Sun area coach of the year last season. “We knew a whole lot about Northwest, but we just didn’t go out and execute. (Knights guard Norsha (Willis) had a great game (25 points) going backdoor and penetrating. We let her do what she wanted out there.
“We’re lucky that we’re so strong offensively,” he added. “We had to play strong today and got 29 and 27 from A.J. and Beth. But if we’re going to go any farther, we’ve got to step it up offensively and do some more things.”
Roland, after a sluggish, two of six, four-point start, rebounded for 12 points on five of seven shooting in the second, helping Urbana take its first lead, 22-21, with 3:02 to play in the half.
Although Northwest’s 6-foot-3 center Amy Turner netted her 1,000th career point with 48 seconds remaining - creating a potential momentum-shift situation - Ostendorf played Pepto-Bismol neutralizer with a pair of foul shots seconds later.
“We’ve never been down by that much before,” said Ostendorf, who also pulled down a game-high eight rebounds. “When it got to 13-1, I thought, `We’ve got to score.’ We’ve never been in that situation before.”
Urbana awoke from its first-half slumber for a 21-11 scoring run in the third period, committing just four turnovers to Northwest’s eight to pull away, 49-38, on a Roland layin at 1:11 in the third.
The `Climbers shot an amazing 68 percent (15 of 22) in the decisive second half. Ostendorf went 7 of 9 during that span, while Roland went 6 of 7.
“We talked before the game about taking the outside shot, but we’ve got to learn to make (on-court) adjustments,” Moss said. “I mean, if we can get the ball inside and win the ballgame, hey, let’s do it.”
URBANA (62) - Rockhold 0 0-0 0, Ostendorf 11 5-7 27, Wearly 3 0-1 6, Roland 13 3-10 29, Parker 0 0-0 0. Totals: 27 8-18 62.
NORTHWEST (55) - Siefert 4 2-4 10, Turner 3 3-4 9, Vann 1 0-0 2, West 4 1-2 9, Willis 11 2-4 25. Totals: 23 8-14 55.
Urbana 10 30 51 62 Northwest 19 29 40 55 Three-point goals: Urbana 0; Northwest 1 (Willis).
Records: Urbana 24-0, Northwest 17-7.
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