BUCYRUS, Ohio — No matter how many times Amanda Nething and her Ontario teammates got knocked to the deck Saturday night, the Warriors kept getting back to their feet.
Nething scored a career-high 28 points as sixth-seeded Ontario rallied from an 11-point halftime deficit for a 57-51 upset win over No. 2 Norwalk in the Division II sectional championship game at Alex Kish Memorial Gymnasium.
The Warriors (16-8) will play No. 4 seed and Northern Ohio League rival Shelby for a third time in the district semifinals at 6:15 p.m. Thursday in Willard. The Whippets advanced with a 68-55 win over Sandusky Perkins in the opening game of Saturday’s sectional doubleheader in Bucyrus.
“We got down, but we never panicked,” Nething said. “We knew even if we got behind, if we kept our composure we would be in the game.”
Runaway Truck: The Truckers (17-6) led 16-7 after the first quarter and 34-23 at the half, thanks largely to All-Ohio candidate Jiselle Thomas. The junior guard scored 20 of her game-high 31 points in the first half.
“She is hard to guard, especially when she is going to the basket,” said Nething, who was one of a handful of Warriors who took turns guarding Thomas. “We did our best to stay in front of her.”
Rally: Ontario played its way back into the game in the third quarter, outscoring Norwalk 12-4. The Warriors trailed 38-35 heading to the fourth, setting up a wild final eight minutes.
Ontario cut Norwalk’s lead to 38-36 early in the period, but the Truckers responded with a 6-0 run and took a 44-36 lead on an Adrianna Rodriguez layup with 3:51 to play. The Warriors answered with a run of their own, sparked by a Nashail Shelby 3-pointer with 3:31 remaining to cut the deficit to 44-39. Less than 30 seconds later, Nething banked in a trey from the top of the key to make it 44-42 with 3:07 to play.
Ontario pulled even at 44-44 on Nething’s offensive rebound and putback with 2:30 to go, but Thomas split a pair of free throws then scored off an offensive rebound to give Norwalk a 47-44 lead with 1:12 remaining.
Nething’s second triple of the quarter and third of the night knotted the score at 47-47 with 56 seconds remaining, before Thomas hit both ends of a one-and-one for a 49-47 Norwalk lead with 53.6 seconds left.
That is when things got really interesting.
Thomas fouled Shelby on a 3-point attempt with 45.8 seconds left and the sophomore hit 2 of 3 free throws to tie the score at 49-49. The Truckers turned the ball over and Nething was knocked to the floor as she scored the go-ahead layup with 24.1 seconds left. Nething misfired on the free throw attempt, but Shelby grabbed the offensive rebound. Ontario’s Emily Yeager connected on six consecutive free throws in the final 20 seconds to ice it.
“I’m so proud of the way these girls kept playing, even when they were down,” Ontario coach Sarah Krichbaum said. “They played with a lot of heart and refused to lose.”
Shelby backed Nething with 12 points, 10 of which came in the second half. Yeager added 10.
Rodriguez had 10 points for the Truckers.
“They really picked up their defensive intensity in the second half,” Norwalk coach Brock Manlet said of the Warriors. “They did a nice job on Jiselle and I think they wore her down.
“Still, I’m proud of the way my kids played. Ontario just made a couple more plays than we did.”
