WESTFIELD TWP. — With 6:10 remaining in the game, the Ravenna girls basketball team’s student section chanted “This is our house.”
There was no sense arguing.
Cloverleaf’s Helaina Limas puts up an off-balance shot while defended by Ravenna’s Lauren Calhoun during the first half. AARON JOSEFCZYK/GAZETTE
The Ravens left little doubt about who is the best team in the Portage Trail Conference Metro Division on Wednesday, playing flat-out better from the opening tip to grab a 65-49 victory over Cloverleaf and clinch the outright division championship.
Pick an aspect of the game other than the foul line and the Colts (14-6, 9-3) were outplayed in all of them.
“It was a very frustrating night,” coach John Carmigiano said. “I don’t care if you’re the Cavs, the Colts or whoever. You’re not going to beat anybody when they can shoot a bunch of wide-open layups underneath the basket. It was tough.”
Struggling with turnovers without starting guard Ava Illig (nose), Cloverleaf couldn’t get stops, either, and fell behind 19-9 after one quarter and 35-23 at halftime.
Ravenna (16-3, 12-0) went cold for a short stretch in the third and the Colts had the ball down 42-33, but the Ravens responded with a 15-2 run that turned the game into blowout status.
Coming off a 39-point outburst on Saturday, Cloverleaf All-Ohioan Lexi Civittolo had 23 points, three steals and nine blocks despite being double-teamed all over the court. Emerging sophomore Helaina Limas added 14 points, but the seven other players had 12 points on 4-for-29 shooting.
The Ravens kept firing with an unselfish offense led by left-handed off-guard Autumn Retherford (17 points, 5 assists, 4 steals), small forward Alyssa Smetak (16, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals) and muscular center Taylor Geib (12, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 steals). The quartet combined for 45 points, 15 assists and 12 steals, and 6-foot-1 freshman Lauren Calhoun added 10 points off the bench.
“I thought that our kids did a better job of at least deflecting balls, touching balls defensively, in the second half,” Carmigiano said. “That’s what allowed us to at least creep back in a little bit.”
John Carmigiano
The problem was the Colts couldn’t establish their trapping defense early, and Ravenna made them pay with wide-open looks near the rim. Rebounding was a big issue as well, as the Ravens held a 22-12 advantage at halftime before Cloverleaf finally shored that up a bit.
Adding to the frustration was the Colts couldn’t hold on to the ball, committing 10 first-quarter turnovers while shooting 4-for-13 from the floor. They also didn’t get much in transition, allowing Ravenna’s half-court defense to hone in on Civittolo.
Limas and Civittolo kept attacking the rim in the second half, when they combined to make 8-of-8 free throws, but ball movement was poor (season-low-tying 6 assists) and Retherford, Geib and Smetak had all the answers.
“The difference (in the game?) That’s a tough question,” Civittolo said. “I just think we didn’t come out and execute in the areas we wanted to execute in.
“Our defense definitely wasn’t up to par. We were jumbled up there. On the offensive end, I think we didn’t get to run our transition as much as we wanted to, and we were forced to run more half-court sets.”
Ravenna 65, Cloverleaf 49
RAVENNA 19 16 17 13 — 65
CLOVERLEAF 9 14 12 14 — 49
Ravenna — Alyssa Smetak 6-1-16, Emily Holt 3-1-7, Taylor Geib 5-2-12, Autumn Retherford 8-0-17, Lauren Calhoun 4-2-10, Sarah Long 1-0-3, Josie Martyna 0-0-0. TOTALS: 27-6-65.
Cloverleaf — Helaina Limas 5-4-14, Kassandra Kemp 1-0-2, Taylor Barnum 1-0-2, Jillian Miglich 2-0-6, Lexi Civittolo 8-7-23, Mckenna Jordan 0-0-0, Erian Hamilton 0-2-2, Anna Winnicki 0-0-0, Kayla Wilson 0-0-0. TOTALS: 17-13-49.
3-point goals — Smetak 3, Retherford, Long, Miglich 2. Rebounds — Ravenna 30 (Geib 9), Cloverleaf 28 (Barnum 5). Assists — Ravenna 18 (Retherford, Smetak, Geib 5), Cloverleaf 6 (Miglich, Kemp 2). Records — Ravenna (16-3, 12-0), Cloverleaf (14-6, 9-3). Junior varsity — Ravenna 38, Cloverleaf 30.