SPORTS

Battle-tested Rosecrans shows mettle in district win

Sam Blackburn
Reporter

NEW CONCORD – Between massive graduation losses, injuries and an overall lack of players, it's been a difficult season for the Rosecrans girls basketball team.

In many cases, the team didn't have enough able bodies to scrimmage, and first-year coach Laura Hagy had her doubts as to whether her inexperienced squad could overcome their deficiencies.

Two games into the tournament, her team is proving her wrong.

Samantha Swackhammer scored six of her 12 points in overtime, including four straight free throws in the final 1:07 as Rosecrans outlasted Bridgeport, 50-47, in a Division IV sectional championship game at John Glenn High School.

Rosecrans (8-14) advanced to play No. 2 Hannibal River in the district semifinals at 7:30 p.m. March 5 at New Philadelphia High School. Bridgeport finished 21-3.

It marked the fourth district trip in five seasons for the Bishops, who reached the state finals under coach Gale Kirkbride and a veteran cast of players this past season.

Unlike those teams, who almost always were favored to win in the tournament, this one entered Thursday's game with seven wins. They also were the underdog against No. 3 Bridgeport, but the 10th-seeded Bishops showed their schedule had them prepared.

They held Bulldogs' scoring ace Cailtyn Kroll, a 5-foot-9 guard who had 42 points in a win against Bellaire St. John Central earlier this season, to one field goal.

"They are coming together when it matters," Hagy said. "The girls kept their composure well. They played a very smart game. They knew who their player was, but we had to respect the rest of the team as well."

Kroll's only basket was a 3-pointer near the end of regulation, which forced overtime after Rosecrans extended a one-point lead to 43-40 on Abby Hutcheson's layup off of a press breaker with 30 seconds left.

No other Bulldog scored in the final 1:56 of regulation and overtime.

Hagy cited the defense of junior Samantha Swackhammer, who battled an ankle injury for much of the second half of the season, for helping keep Kroll in check.

But it was Swackhammer's free-throw shooting late that helped seal it. She finished with 12 points, grabbed a team-high seven rebounds, and also had five assists.

"What can you say about Sam?" Hagy said. "We knew we had to come together and play as team if we were going to win, and that's what they did. We've been having great practices. Everybody is back and healthy, and I think people just look at our record and we've surprised some people."

Riley Hagy hit a pair of timely 3s among her team-high 14 points, while Hutcheson also had 12 — none bigger than her free throw in the closing seconds of overtime. Bridgeport got the ball back with 5.7 seconds left, but the Bishops stole the ball near midcourt to ice the win.

Rosecrans trailed 11-9 after one quarter, 21-20 at halftime and 34-32 entering the fourth, and it still faced a 40-39 deficit with 1:56 to play. However, the Bishops weren't going to be denied on this night.

"Even though we lost the lead, I still felt good going into overtime," Hagy said. "The girls are jelling at the right time."

Madeline Nash added seven points with four rebounds and Hutcheson had six rebounds with two steals as Rosecrans had a 22-15 edge on the glass and was 20-of-47 from the field.

sblackburn@zanesvilletimesrecorder.com

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Twitter: @SamBlackburnTR