Chillicothe girls beat Waverly in sectional opener

• Chillicothe advanced to a Division II sectional final with a 67-43 win over Waverly Wednesday night.
• The Cavaliers forced 29 turnovers while limiting Waverly to just 17 successful field goal attempts.
• Chillicothe was led by Jasmine Jordan with 18 points while Waverly's Laken Smith scored 19.

FRANKFORT - Defense continues to be the focus of the Chillicothe's girls' basketball masterpiece.

The No. 4 seeded Cavaliers (15-8) forced 29 turnovers in a 67-43 win over No. 5 Waverly Wednesday night in a Division II sectional semifinal at Adena High School — upping their all-time sectional tournament record to 25-26; including a 3-1 mark under current head coach Pat Beard.

The win allows Chillicothe to advance to Saturday's Division II sectional final Saturday afternoon at Adena High School against the winner of Thursday's game between Miami Trace and Logan Elm. If the Cavaliers pull out a win, it would mark the eighth sectional title in school history.

"The defensive plan tonight was to create pressure," Beard said. "We thought that (Waverly's) ball handlers couldn't take much of our pressure and we knew if we got out after them, they would make poor decisions with the basketball. We also wanted to double (Tigers' center) Laken (Smith) when she got inside. Around the perimeter, we stuck (Cavaliers' center) Osh (Brown) on her and we had help inside. We understood who was going to shoot and who wasn't going to shoot and I thought we executed the game plan pretty well."

The combination of Brown, senior Jasmine Jordan, and sophomore Shawnee Smith played magnificently once again. Each player reached double-digit scoring while combining for 17 of the team's 29 rebounds.

"Those three are our terrific trio," Beard said. "When they play well, we play well. We need all three of those girls playing at an elite level and a high-energy level. They did that tonight and got a lot of easy looks off forced turnovers. When we're making our bunnies, we're pretty lethal."

Neither team scored until the 5:21 mark in the first quarter when Smith got the scoring started. Shawntel Smith followed at the 4:17 mark before Shawnee Smith added another score 3:54 to make it 6-0 Cavaliers. Smith put the Tigers (14-9) on the board at 3:26 with a triple, cutting the lead in half.

Smith then scored eight of the Tigers' 10 first quarter points as Waverly trailed 13-10 heading to the second.

Second quarter action featured a plethora of scoring from both teams. Chillicothe's Essence Devlin got the party started with a 3-pointer at 7:38 before Jordan got a putback to go at 7:08, making it 17-10 Chillicothe. Brown then got in on the action with a runner, extending the lead to 30-19 at the 2:37 mark.

By halftime, the Cavaliers' lead was nine points at 35-26 after both teams combined for 38 points during the prior eight minutes.

All highlights in the third belonged strictly to the Cavaliers.

Brown and Jordan teamed up on Waverly's post players while Shawnee Smith had success on the perimeter. After outscoring the Tigers 21-9, Chillicothe headed into the final quarter with a commanding 56-35 edge.

"We talked about turning up the defensive pressure and we talked about how we needed to stop fouling," Beard said. "We gave up six or eight points at the foul line in the first half. They also got six or eight on the offensive glass due to us not boxing out. So our emphasis was keeping pressure defense and making sure we box out. That allowed us to jump out to that big lead."

With the Cavs on top 67-41 with 1:37 remaining in regulation, Laken Smith hit a turnaround jumper over Brown, notching her 1,000th career point. But unfortunately for the junior, all the milestone meant was the final score in a second straight early tournament exit for the Tigers.

Jordan and Shawnee Smith led the Cavaliers with 18 points apiece while Brown scored 16 and brought down 10 rebounds. Shawntel Smith finished with seven points as point guard Tanea Cousins chipped in four points, two boards, and three assists.

Laken Smith led all scorers with 19 points and led the Tigers with six rebounds. Kilee Perdue logged 11 points and Brittany Green scored seven and grabbed five boards.

dwebb@chillicothegazette.com

Twitter: @dw1509

Stat Book

Waverly:  10-16-9-6 — 43

Chillicothe: 13-22-21-11 — 67

Waverly: 17-41 FG, 6-10 FT, 3-9 3pt. (Smith 3), 21 rebounds (Smith 6), 29 turnovers, 4 Assists (Remington 2). Scoring: Smith 7 2-4 19, Perdue 5 0-0 10, Green 2 4-5 8, Prall 3 0-0 6.

Chillicothe: 28-62 FG, 9-13 FT, 2-5 3pt. (Devlin 1, Shawnee Smith 1), 29 rebounds (Brown 10), 15 turnovers, 11 Assists (Cousins 3). Scoring: Jordan 8 2-4 18, Shawnee Smith 7 3-5 18, Brown 6 4-4 16, Shawntel Smith 3 0-0 6, Cousins 2 0-0 4, Devlin 1 0-0 3, Putnam 1 0-0 2.