PERRY HEIGHTS — The Maplewood girls basketball team just couldn’t get enough offense down the stretch on Saturday.
The Rockets fell victim to a second-half comeback by Seneca East, as they fell 31-25 in a Division VII regional final at Massillon Perry.
“Came down to a lot of things tonight,” Maplewood head coach Stephanie Pykare said. “Taking care of the ball, executing our sets, being patient. And defensively, containing their players and rebounding. That’s why you play the game, that’s why you go over it, and we trusted our players. Sometimes it’s your night and sometimes it’s not.”
The scoring was minimal to start the game – an early sign of things to come for both teams. The score was tied at 4 five minutes in, as turnovers and missed shots got the better of both squads.
A 6-0 run midway through the second quarter gave the Rockets a 12-6 lead. The defense took care of the rest, and Maplewood had a 15-8 lead at halftime.
The Tigers started to get a couple shots to fall in the third. A layup from Izzy Stockmaster cut the Rockets’ lead to 21-19 just before the end of the quarter.
In the fourth, Cami Lantz knocked down a three with 5:07 to play to give the Tigers a 23-21 lead, forcing a Maplewood timeout.
Maplewood (23-4) was still scoreless in the fourth with 2:41 to play, trailing 25-21. But Aliah Brumit made it a one-score game with a layup. However, the Tigers (20-7) had the ball with over 1:20 to play. They worked 30 seconds off the clock and Maplewood was forced to foul.
Stockmaster split the pair, but Seneca East came up with the offensive rebound. At the line again, Stockmaster made both free throws to push the Tigers’ lead to 30-23.
The Rockets only made one layup while trying to come back in the final 49 seconds.
“It’s not the outcome we wanted, but I don’t want to take away from what we accomplished this season,” Pykare said. “They’ve accomplished so much. If you would have told me that we would have been in the regional final come the beginning of the season, I would have told you, you were crazy.
“We love those girls. We’re proud of them.”
Stockmaster finished with 13 points to lead the Tigers, and Alexa Snay added 10. Of their combined 23 points, 17 came in the second half.
Morgan Himes tallied 13 points as the Rockets’ high scorer. Claire Urchek scored six points, Brumit had four and Katie Wear finished with two.
Maplewood had three seniors on the team in Lauran Krieg, Raegan Krieg and Himes. And the Rockets’ senior class went on quite a journey over its high school careers.
During the seniors’ freshman season, the Rockets were rebuilding and only had a handful of wins. As sophomores, they got over the .500 mark and finished 12-10, and last season, they posted a 20-win campaign as Maplewood went 22-3.
They were a part of even more progress this season. The Rockets won the district and clinched a spot in the regional finals for only the second time in program history, with the first coming in 2013.
“Those seniors mean the world to us,” Pykare said. “They’ve given this program everything that they’ve had. We can’t take away from what we’ve accomplished.”
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