AMHERST — Gene Leonard’s high school basketball coaching career is finally over, six minutes later than he expected.
For the first time in the
28-year history of the Lorain County Girls All-Star Game, there was overtime Tuesday night at Amherst Steele High School. Actually, there were two overtime periods in the second game. With no provision for overtime, it was agreed to play four minutes in the first OT and two minutes in the second.
The Gold team defeated the Black, coached by Brookside’s Leonard, 79-76. It was Leonard’s final game after 35 years teaching at his alma mater.
“It was a lot of fun,” Leonard said. “The girls were enjoying themselves. If there was a four-point play we could have drawn up we would have done it.”
The Black club needed such a strategy as it found itself trailing by five points before a basket by Avon’s Ali Haldi cut the difference to three points with 4.7 seconds remaining. The Gold team managed to run out the clock to hang on to the victory.
“The girls told us, ‘We have to have a winner,’” Leonard said. “They said, ‘We can’t let this game end in a tie.’ That shows how competitive they are. They were just supposed to go out and have fun, but they still wanted to win.”
The game also featured a stoppage of play in the opening seconds of the second period, when the Gold team was found to have six players on the court.
“I thought that was pretty tricky,” Leonard said in jest. “That’s a new defense — five-on-five and a floating one-player zone.”
Honesty King of Elyria, who had earlier been chosen Lorain County’s 24th Miss Basketball, was the difference. King scored 24 points and connected on a three-point play with 30.4 seconds left that lifted the Golds to a 79-74 lead.
King also scored with 11 seconds remaining in the first overtime that tied the score at 74. She had eight rebounds and three assists.
But it seemed what King really wanted was a 3-point basket from NBA range. She didn’t get one, although not from lack of trying.
“We were supposed to have fun tonight, so that’s what I was doing,” King said.
But King, who led all Lorain County girls players in scoring this season at 19.2 points per game, got serious once the game’s outcome was in the balance.
“I knew my team wanted to win, so I tried my hardest,” King said of her efforts down the stretch.
ShaQwe Lawson of Oberlin broke the 74-74 deadlock via a driving layup with just over a minute to play.
Gold had a 70-66 lead with 48 seconds left in regulation. Sarah Scheithauer of Clearview cut it to 70-68 and Brookside’s Jodi Lyons tied it with two free throws at 8.2 seconds to play.
Alex Hansen of Lake Ridge, the county’s Division IV Player of the Year, added 14 points for Gold. Admiral King teammates Kinesia Thorpe and Ivory Smith led the Black team with 16 and 14 points, respectively. Another Admiral King star on the Black team, Jillian VanWagnen, led all playmakers with six assists.
In the first game, won by the Red team over the Blue, 55-47, Oberlin’s Alex Zimmerman scored 14 points, Angela Daugherty of Oberlin grabbed 12 rebounds and Clearview’s Mercedes Thompson had six assists for the Reds.
The score was tied at 30 before the Reds went on a 9-2 run to lead for good. Amherst’s Brittany Cruz scored 10 points, Midview’s Kelsey Voit had 11 rebounds and Katie Finley of Vermilion added five assists for the Blue team.
Contact Steve Byrne at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.
FIRST GAME
RED (55): Mercedes Thompson 3-0-6, Aubrie Ridinger 3-0-7, Dawn Dunlap 2-0-5, Julie Campo 3-0-6, Kelly Quarando 2-0-4, Darcy Warden 2-2-6, Angela Daugherty 2-0-4, Alex Zimmerman 5-4-14, Erin Phillips 1-0-3. Totals 23-6-55.
BLUE (47): Sarah Ortega 3-0-7, Brittany Cruz 4-0-10, Hope Halstead 3-0-6, Tessa LaRue 0-0-0, Katie Finley 2-0-4, Miranda Szucs 3-0-6, Tiondra Smith 1-0-2, Loren Selestak 1-0-2, Kelsey Voit 2-2-6, Alyssa Rangel 2-0-4. Totals 21-2-47.
Red    8    15    16    16    —    55
Blue    3    20    11     13    —    47
Three-point goals: Red 3 (Ridinger, Dunlap, Phillips), Blue 3 (Cruz 2, Ortega). Rebounds: Red 48 (Daugherty 12), Blue 38 (Voit 11). Turnovers: Red 21, Blue 13.
SECOND GAME
BLACK (76): Sarah Scheithauer 2-1-5, Jillian VanWagnen 1-2-4, Cassie Griffiths 2-0-4, Ali Haldi 3-0-7, Ariel Calhoun 4-4-12, Jodi Lyon 1-4-6, Kinesia Thorpe 7-0-16, Courtney Jarvis 3-0-6, Bridget Beury 1-0-2, Ivory Smith 5-1-14. Totals 29-12-76.
GOLD (79): Rachel Daniels 3-0-6, Alex Hansen 5-3-14, Megan Snow 3-0-7, Kassandra Messenger 0-0-0, Stephanie Recko 1-0-2, Chelsey Calhoun 5-0-10, ShaQwe Lawson 3-0-6, Charlene Oliver 5-0-10, Honesty King 11-1-24. Totals 36-4-79.
Black    14    13    23    20    4    2    —    76
Gold    19    17    19     15    4    5    —    79
Three-point goals: Black 6 (Smith 3, Thorpe 2, Haldi), Gold 3 (Hansen, Snow, King). Rebounds: Black 45 (Smith 7), Gold 44 (Calhoun 10). Turnovers: Black 30, Gold 22. 

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