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Belpre claims third straight sectional crown

Photo by Josh Hughes Belpre’s Kaitlen Bush (21) looks to pass during a high school girls basketball sectional final against Eastern Saturday at Wellston, Ohio.

WELLSTON, Ohio — A second-half onslaught was too much for Eastern in the OHSAA Division IV Sectional Championship, as Belpre overcame a slow start to win 53-29 on Saturday afternoon from the Wellston High School gymnasium.

Those timely plays helped weather an early storm for the Golden Eagles (18-5), as Eastern jumped out to an 8-2 advantage behind the strength of a pair of Abby Cochenour 3-balls. Using a strong inside-game to get back into the contest, Belpre surged in front with less than a minute left in the frame with an and-1 layup from Kyna Waderker. That gave the Golden Eagles a 12-11 lead after eight minutes. Waderker and Halee Williams paced BHS with 19 points apiece in the win, and Waderker was excited to see her squad win another sectional crown.

“It feels great,” she said. “It’s my third sectional championship. Our plan was to run in transition and get the boards, and we did that. We can go as far as we want to go. I feel like the team has the mentality to do it. I’ve been playing with this team for a long time, and we just clicked. I think we wanted it more than they did.”

A 24-11 run through the second and third quarters helped put the game away, and smothering defense also played a role in Eastern’s drought. Cochenour tallied nine points in the first half and was held to just five more throughout the remainder of the contest. The boost in BHS scoring started with 2:19 to go in the first half, as Williams hit a free throw to cut into a brief Eastern lead of 16-15. That was the last time EHS led, as Waderker, Williams and Kaitlen Bush combined the last nine points of the half.

Rebounding and tie-ups from the likes of Williams, Waderker and Curstin Giffin limited chances for EHS to make a comeback. Not to mention aggressive play from Bush and Abbey LaFatch helped force ill-advised throws that were intercepted by any nearby Golden Eagle defenders.

Eastern (5-16) was eliminated from postseason play with the loss, and fourth-seeded Belpre moves on to district semifinal action against No. 5 Green at 8 p.m. Thursday at Jackson High School. The winner of the Belpre-Green game plays in the district finals against the winner of the 1-9 matchup featuring Notre Dame and Manchester.

“We always value how we push the tempo of a game,” Belpre head coach Chris Murray said of his team’s victory. “We felt like if we could get them to take long shots and contest those shots, we could really cause some issues for them. We’re really at a good advantage, because our 6-foot bigs (Williams and Waderker) just run. They go, and they run to get after it. We also felt like we had a good advantage inside. We didn’t really have to force a lot of stuff outside, and they have a good player in (Cochenour), so we just wanted to minimize her scoring. I’m really happy for the girls, and it’s all about them.”

Contact Josh Hughes at jhughes@newsandsentinel.com

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