CLEVELAND — Taylor Bell didn’t make a field goal all afternoon, but she made five of six foul shots in the last 1:05 on Saturday.
When she started the string, Keystone’s girls held a seven-point lead, but they couldn’t shake Fairview in a Division II sectional championship game at St. Joseph Academy.
When she was finished, the Wildcats’ lead was 10 points and they were seconds away from a 42-33 victory and a district semifinal date with Bay at 8 p.m., Thursday on the same court. The Rockets defeated Padua in Saturday’s second game.
In the final analysis, it was the Wildcats’ defense that saved their uncertain pelts. They led the Warriors by only a point after a quarter and two points at the break. Then in the third quarter, Keystone extended its zone defense to force the Warriors’ outside shooters farther from the basket.
“At practice, we worked on all of our defenses and the defenses we would see against Fairview,” said Casidy Gregory, a freshman guard. “We did well in practice, we came to play and we did good in the game.”
How well did the defense do? It held the Warriors to under 30-percent field-goal shooting, put them on the foul line just 11 times and held them to single-digit scoring in each of the first three quarters. And the Wildcats destroyed Fairview on the backboards, 33-21.
A big reason for that was Keystone’s height advantage with 6-foot-2 Erin Gallagher and 5-10 Chloe Irish in the post. And, with a combined 22 points, they teamed for more than half the team’s total. Gallagher scored a
game-high 15. Her seven field goals were all from close range, four on lob passes from the outside (two from Irish), two layups and a putback.
“Chloe and I have been playing together for a long time,” said the junior Gallagher, who lobbed in to Irish for a basket midway through the second quarter. “We practice that (lobs to the inside) a lot all year, because me and Chloe also play AAU together.”
The twosome was broken up for a chunk of the fourth quarter when Irish, also a junior, suffered a knee injury with 4:24 to play and left the game while her knee was iced.
“I’m not sure what happened,” Irish said. “I really don’t remember. It was either a knee or else I twisted and my ankle turned the other way. When I fell down, I twisted my knee.”
Keystone led only 19-18 near the midpoint of the third quarter. Then Gallagher scored a putback, Becky Nielsen got loose for a fastbreak basket and Gregory hit a shot from the left side. The Wildcats carried a 25-20 lead into the final eight minutes and Gallagher quickly extended it when she scored from underneath after a lob from Irish.
It became a 32-26 Keystone lead with just under 2:30 to play when Gregory scored at the end of a fastbreak. Gregory, who finished with six points, created the final score when she made two foul shots with five seconds to go.
“It kind of went the way we thought,” said Keystone coach Scott Terry. “We know we’re not the most powerful offensive team in the world. We don’t have anybody on the team averaging in double figures. We knew, as we always do, that we were going to have to rely a lot on our defense, and I thought the girls did a nice job in our zones.
“The goal was to extend their guards out beyond the arc and not let them spot up. And we did. We did a great job of executing defensively. We had some good help coming off the bench. When Chloe went down, Taylor Kessinger went in a did a good job, and hit a big basket near the foul line (with 3:45 left) and got a big board for us. She gave us some good minutes.”
Contact Bob Daniels at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.

Keystone 42, Fairview 33

KEYSTONE (42): Becky Nielsen 2-0-4, Kim Kokoski 0-0-0, Taylor Bell 0-8-8, Taylor Kessinger 1-0-2, Chloe Irish 3-1-7,  Casidy Gregory 2-2-6, Erin Gallagher 7-1-15, Melanie Bastock 0-0-0. Totals: 15-12-42.
FAIRVIEW (33): Daryn Herman 0-0-0, Brady Lorek 4-0-10, Jen Murtha 2-0-4, Molly Troxell 2-3-7, April Homolak 2-1-5, Kathryn Schaeffer 0-0-0, Molly Hardesty 0-0-0, Megan Wolansky 2-0-5. Totals: 13-4-33.
Keystone    5    10    10    17    —    42
Fairview    4    9    7    13    —    33
3-point goals: Keystone 0-8; Fairview 3-15(Lorek 2, Wolansky). Field goals: Keystone 15-40 (38 percent); Fairview 13-45 (29 percent). Free throws: Keystone 12-17; Fairview 4-11. Rebounds: Keystone 33; Fairview 21. Turnovers: Keystone 17; Fairview 18. 

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