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OUE Women Return to Final Four

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By Mike Anthony - email

Things started a little rocky for the Panthers Sunday afternoon as they fell behind a talented Miami Hamilton squad 4-0 in the second round of the ORCC State Tournament in Chillicothe. 

But once the defending state champions settled in, this anticipated matchup became one sided very quickly as OUE responded with 9 straight points to take a 9-4 lead, forcing the Harriers to call timeout at the 15:30 mark.  Unfortunately for Miami, the timeout in play did nothing to stop the momentum as Alex Kuhn, the sniper from Monroe Central, scored the next six points on consecutive three pointers to push the lead to 15-4, which prompted a second Miami timeout at the 14:10 mark.

The domination continued as the aggressive Panthers forced a dozen Miami turnovers off of their full court pressure in the first twenty minutes which led to 18 transition points and a comfortable 35-16 halftime lead.

 However, OUE was not content.  The Panthers had Miami on the ropes and continued the assault at the start of the second half, forcing numerous turnovers with their trapping press, and the lead swelled to a whopping thirty five points at 55-20 on a basket by Barnesville senior Allie Doan with 12:30 remaining in the game.

 At this point, OUE pulled back on the pressure and cruised to a 67-45 victory.

Kuhn led the way with 20 points, which included a perfect 8 for 8 showing at the stripe.  Doan chipped in with 13 markers.  John Marshall guard Hanna Gossett finished with 10 points and 7 rebounds.  St. John's Kristina Velkovich led the way in rebounding with 10 boards.

OUE improved to 19-5 on the season and advances to face top seeded OU Lancaster (22-4) in the ORCC state semi-finals this Saturday, February 25 at 1pm in Middletown.  OUL defeated host OU Chillicothe 61-54 to advance.  Miami Hamilton slipped to 15-8 with the loss.

The Cougars already own two close victories over OUE this season, but the Panthers have been in this position before.  This same scenario played out last season when OUE lost the two regular season matchups before nipping OUL in the state finals by a score of 81-80 in overtime.