North Union girls top defending state champ Africentric
COLUMBUS – Paxon Stofcheck and Avery Clark were just shy of kindergarten the last time Africentric did not win a Central District championship in girls basketball.
The two North Union freshmen made career-energizing plays that kept Africentric from raising its 11th straight district championship plaque Friday night.
Stofcheck sank two layups and Clark knocked down one in the closing two minutes to lift North Union past the defending state champions 48-47 in a Division III district title game at Ohio Dominican University.
The Lady Cats (26-1) will play the winner of Saturday's game between Oak Harbor and New London on Wednesday in a regional semifinal at Lexington.
The district crown is North Union's third since 2010 after frustrating runner-up finishes last year and in 2012.
Trailing the Lady Nubians (19-6) 44-40, Stofcheck made her first shot with 2:19 remaining in the game, Clark followed with her bucket at the 1:22 mark, and Stofcheck produced another basket with 44 seconds left to give the Lady Cats a 46-44 lead.
Emily Clark tacked on a pair of free throws with eight seconds remaining to seal an 8-0 run which put the top-seeded Lady Cats out of reach and their huge and boisterous crowd into a frenzy.
"A freshman saw she had a one-on-one situation and she was not afraid to do it," North Union coach Natalie Herring said of her youngsters.
Second-seeded Africentric helped in the latter stages of the final period by going to a spread which slowed its vaunted offense. The Lady Nubians were looking for good shots or North Union fouls, but got few of either. The shots they did get didn't go into the basket.
"I knew we had to have them miss a couple of shots, and that's what happened," Herring said.
North Union had control of a rough-and-tumble game early with an 18-6 edge in the first period. Autumn Hudson, who is taller than any Lady Nubian, accounted for nine Lady Cats points in that stanza.
"We knew they would be very physical with us, and they were, but we got some buckets off of pressure," Herring said.
North Union was still ahead until the late stages of the second period when four turnovers assisted Africentric's 8-0 run to close the half. Just like that, the Lady Nubians were in front 26-24.
North Union got the momentum back in the third stanza from the outside.
Taylor Hoffman blasted in a pair of 3-pointers and Emily Clark netted one as the Lady Cats re-took the advantage.
"I knew we had to hit transition 3s, and Emily was a rock out there," Herring said.
After the teams entered the final period tied at 37, Africentric looked to be the team advancing as the Lady Cats fell behind by four with precious little time remaining.
That's when North Union's youngsters hit the big time for the first time to punch their club's tickets to Lexington.
Herring also thought North Union's recent experience with close games benefited her team in the waning moments.
"I'm not sure how many times they (the Lady Nubians) have been in an end-of-game situation like we have been," she said.
Hudson led the Lady Cats in scoring with 15 points while Emily Clark had 11 points and six rebounds and Hoffman swished 10 points. Avery Clark pulled in seven boards.
Leah Morrow paced Africentric with 13 points.
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