WILLARD, Ohio — Jiselle Thomas continued her postseason rampage Thursday at Robert L. Haas Gymnasium.
Norwalk’s high-scoring senior guard dropped 35 points as the fourth-seeded Truckers rallied for a 71-56 win over No. 1 Shelby in the nightcap of Thursday’s Division II district semifinal doubleheader.
In three tournament games, Thomas has scored 100 points. She needs just four points in Saturday’s district championship game against Bellevue to reach the 2,000-point plateau.
“Everybody watching her and seeing what she does, you just expect it night-in and night-out,” Norwalk coach Brock Manlet said. “I hope everybody enjoys it, because there’s not going to be a player like that for a long time.”
Strong Start: The Whippets (21-3) raced out to a 10-0 lead in the opening four minutes. Shelby led 19-12 after the first quarter, but Norwalk (20-5) stormed stormed back in the second and took a 31-30 lead to intermission.
“We let up a little bit defensively and gave them some transition buckets,” Shelby coach Natalie Lantz said. “Communication broke down a little bit and we didn’t execute offensively like we had been doing.
“I was very proud of their efforts in the first quarter and then there was a lapse.”
Reinforcements: Shelby took a 35-30 lead on a Jackie Garrett 3-pointer early in the third before Norwalk’s Kaelyn Harkness began to heat up. The junior sharp-shooter hits three straight 3-pointers and scored 11 of her 17 points in the period. Her trey with 4:29 left in the third gave Norwalk a 42-41 lead and the Truckers never trailed again.
“Whenever we get a second scorer like that to step up with Jiselle, it makes us really tough to beat,” Manlet said. “She kept us in the game and gave us a spark and then everybody else got their feet underneath them and we started going as a team.”
Leaders: Garrett and Maddi Fidler each had 13 points for the Whippets. Cierra Gurney had nine, while Kennadie Goth added eight and Bailey Walter had seven.
Shelby will lose six seniors to graduation.
“They’re just a great group of kids,” Lantz said. “They’ve just been awesome to coach.”
