NORTH ROYALTON — With the halftime clock winding down Tuesday, Wadsworth star Jodi Johnson looked beyond her bench and toward freshman team coach Lindsay Tenyak. Johnson then cupped her hands to make a heart symbol before transitioning into fanning her face.
Yeah, the nearly sold-out North Royalton High gymnasium was toasty, but the Wadsworth girls basketball team was scorching and loving every minute.
Riding season-long staples of a textbook start, ferocious defense and elite foul shooting, the Grizzlies continued to run roughshod through Northeast Ohio’s best with a no-doubt 73-49 victory over Magnificat in a Division I regional semifinal.
The Grizzlies (25-1) advanced to battle Toledo Whitmer (22-6), a come-from-behind 41-38 winner over Westlake, at 1 p.m. Saturday in Norwalk.
Wadsworth’s Jodi Johnson (15), Lexi Lance, and Laurel Palitto (22) are all smiles in the closing minutes of a 73-49 victory over Magnificat in the Regional semi-final. (RON SCHWANE / GAZETTE)
“That was a good win,” point guard Sophia Fortner said. “We celebrate now, but we tuck ourselves in (to bed) tonight and we focus on the next game.”
Johnson led Wadsworth with 25 points, four rebounds, two assists, three steals and three blocks, including two emphatically on dead sprints near the baseline. Fortner (career-high 18 points) made 12-of-12 free throws to go with four assists, two steals, only one turnover and plenty of ankle-breaking dribbling, while center Lexi Lance added 13 points and nine rebounds.
Magnificat (21-5), which played 12 district finalists this season, saw standout power forward Elise Keshock score 18 of her team-high 20 points in what amounted to a cosmetic second half. Penn recruit Phoebe Sterba contributed 12 points and six assists, but the Blue Streaks never recovered after committing 11 turnovers while falling behind 24-7 after one quarter.
Wadsworth took its biggest lead, 55-28, on a four-point play by small forward Laurel Palitto with 2:04 to go in the third quarter. The Grizzlies also ensured anything resembling a comeback was impossible by making a ridiculous 30-of-33 free throws (.909), including 22-for-24 in the second half.
“I didn’t know until Coach (Andrew) Booth said that,” an impressed Fortner said of the foul shooting. “When he said that, I was very happy because I know one of my goals this season was to get better at foul shooting.
“The coaching staff does a very good job of putting us under pressure in practice, so when we get in games it’s a piece of cake.”
Sterba and fellow ball-handlers Abigail Adler and Jillian Birchfield handled Wadsworth pressure well for the first few minutes before their entire team imploded during a 16-0 Grizzlies run to end the first period. The Blue Streaks had a balanced effort in that regard, as six players committed turnovers.
Johnson was at the forefront with 12 points and two steals. Lance added seven points, while Fortner hit a 3-pointer and backup Maddie Movsesian continued her postseason-long theme of immediate impact with an assist, steal-and-score and another swipe in less than 2½ minutes.
Wadsworth settled in from that point and calmly adjusted to anything Magnificat threw at it. The Grizzlies took their initial 20-point lead with 2:37 left in the half and entered recess up 36-13 before a rag-tag third quarter, which featured 44 combined points but ended with Wadsworth on top 57-36.
“Playing them the first time (a 47-29 win on Dec. 30), our defense kind of led to them turning it over,” Johnson said. “We knew that we would be able to get them running and start jumping them and get steals in order to get our offense. That’s definitely what we did. We pressured them.”
While turnovers proved critical early — the Blue Streaks had only seven over the final three quarters — containing 16-point scorer Keshock when the game mattered may have been more important.
The 5-foot-9 senior developed into one of the most devastating post scorers in the area by using body control and strength to bulldoze to the rim. Wadsworth’s Jenna Johnson helped deny the ball from Keshock by cutting off passing lanes, while Fortner and Olivia Chaney took charges on the few occasions Keshock touched the rock.
Keshock entered halftime with two points on three shots to go with four rebounds, three turnovers and two fouls. She eventually got going offensively via a two-girl game with Sterba, but the outcome basically was decided by then.
“We knew we had to come out strong because they are all capable of scoring,” Jenna Johnson said. “We really had to stay solid on defense, not foul and put our hands up.
“We knew what (Keshock) was capable of, so we knew to stay back and contain her. We knew she’s mainly a driver, so we tried to limit her shots because we wanted to keep the ball out of her hands as much as possible.”
Wadsworth has scored 76, 67, 80 and 73 points while winning by 52, 23, 30 and 24 points this postseason, so it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to calculate the Grizzlies are firing on all cylinders.
“We’ve been hungry since the first day of practice this summer to get to state and win a state championship,” Jodi Johnson said. “Obviously it’s been in our mind since the very beginning of the year, and now it’s just getting closer and closer.”
Notes
- Magnificat was 12-for-13 at the free throw line, meaning the teams combined to shoot 42-for-46 (.913).
- Wadsworth is shooting .467 from the floor, .828 from the foul line and .340 from 3-point range this postseason.
- The Blue Streaks committed 23 fouls, but zero players were disqualified.
Wadsworth 73, Magnificat 49
Division I Regional Semifinal
MAGNIFICAT 7 6 23 13 — 49
WADSWORTH 24 12 21 16 — 73
Magnificat — Phoebe Sterba 5-10 0-0 12, Elise Keshock 7-12 5-5 20, Lily Schwind 3-4 0-0 6, Jillian Birchfield 1-2 5-5 7, Abigail Adler 0-3 2-3 2, Sara Spicer 0-2 0-0 0, Theresa Farnan 1-2 0-0 2, Lissy Roggenburk 0-3 0-0 0, Molly Normadin 0-0 0-0 0, Anne Ruddy 0-0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 17-38 12-13 49.
Wadsworth — Laurel Palitto 1-3 1-1 4, Jenna Johnson 0-3 2-2 2, Lexi Lance 4-7 5-6 13, Jodi Johnson 7-9 10-11 25, Sophia Fortner 2-6 12-12 18, Peyton Banks 3-5 0-0 7, McKenna Banks 0-1 0-0 0, Olivia Chaney 0-2 0-1 0, Maddie Movsesian 1-1 0-0 2, Maria Busson 0-0 0-0 0, Alexa Conley 0-0 0-0 0, Meggie Flanigan 1-1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 19-38 30-33 73.
3-point goals — Magnificat 3-12 (Sterba 2-6, Keshock 1-1, Spicer 0-1, Farnan 0-1, Birchfield 0-1, Adler 0-2), Wadsworth 5-10 (Fortner 2-3, P. Banks 1-1, Jo. Johnson 1-1, Palitto 1-3, Chaney 0-1, Je. Johnson 0-1). Fouled out — None. Rebounds — Magnificat 17 (Keshock 7), Wadsworth 18 (Lance 9). Assists — Magnificat 9 (Sterba 6), Wadsworth 12 (Fortner 3). Turnovers — Magnificat 18 (Sterba 4), Wadsworth 8 (Movsesian 2). Fouls — Magnificat 23, Wadsworth 13. Records — Magnificat (21-5), Wadsworth (25-1).