WILLARD, Ohio — Officially it is the Division II Willard district tournament, but it may as well be called the Northern Ohio League Invitational.
Four NOL teams will duke it for district supremacy this week beginning with the semifinals Thursday at Willard’s Robert L. Haas Gymnasium. Fifth-seeded Ontario will take on No. 3 seed and three-time defending district champ Bellevue at 6:15 p.m. Top-seeded Shelby faces No. 4 Norwalk in the late game. The winners meet at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Shelby and Bellevue shared the final NOL championship — the league will fold after the 2016-17 school year — while Norwalk finished third and Ontario was fourth.
“There is a lot of great competition in our league,” Ontario coach Sarah Krichbaum said earlier this season. “It seems like every team has a good group of girls back from last year.”
Three of this year’s four district qualifiers advanced to Willard last year for what turned out to be a memorable district tournament. Shelby beat Ontario on a last-second Kennadie Goth jumper in the semifinals before falling to Bellevue in overtime in the district championship game.
“Everyone is good,” Lantz said as the Whippets prepared for the Richland Source NOL-OCC Challenge. “There’s not an easy win in our league.”
Norwalk pulled the biggest upset in the sectional, roughing up No. 2 seed Upper Sandusky 60-44 to punch their ticket to Willard. The Truckers boast perhaps the top player in the district in Jiselle Thomas, who is headed to Division I High Point University. Thomas scored 39 points in the sectional final win over Upper Sandusky.
“We’ve got a lot of girls back,” Norwalk coach Brock Manlet said, “but so does everyone else.”
Shelby narrowly won both regular season meetings against Norwalk, beating the Truckers 53-50 at Norwalk in early January and rallying for a 64-60 win at home earlier this month. The Whippets overcame a five-point third quarter deficit in the second meeting.
“We have that experience in tight games and the girls aren’t getting flustered,” Lantz said at the time. “Whether they’re up three or down three, they seem to stay composed and work through it.
“As we head into the tournament and games get closer, that experience is important.”
Ontario lost at Bellevue 48-25 in early December, but played the Lady Red much tougher in the second round of league play before falling 53-42. The Warriors opened tournament play with a resounding 61-37 win over Mansfield Senior in the sectional championship game.
“Our league will prepare us for anything we encounter in the postseason,” Krichbaum said after an overtime loss at Shelby in late January. “These are teams we will battle with all season. Then we’ll see them again in the sectional and district.”
