LUCAS — Her players are drifting in uncharted waters, but Lucas skipper Kathy Grover has sailed these seas before.
The sixth-seeded Cubs will play top-seeded Buckeye Central for a Division IV district championship at 7 p.m. Saturday at Willard’s Robert L. Haas Memorial Gymnasium. Lucas upset No. 2 seed Norwalk St. Paul in last week’s sectional final and throttled No. 3 seed South Central to punch its ticket to the Round of 32.
While postseason success has been fleeting for the Cubs — the district appearance is the first for Lucas since 1989 — Grover can draw on a wealth of tournament experience.
A 1989 St. Peter’s graduate, Grover was a part of two Final Four teams. The Jeff Strang-led Spartans reached the Class A state semifinals in 1987 and returned to the Division IV state semifinals the following season.
“I remember playing Buckeye in the district finals year after year after year,” Grover said after the Cubs throttled South Central 49-29 in Thursday’s district semifinals. “We played at Willard 29 years ago against Buckeye.”
The 1986-87 Spartans fell to Chillicothe Unioto 62-53 in the state semifinals at St. John Arena. The following year, St. Peter’s dropped a 45-44 heart-breaker to South Charleston Southeastern in the state semis.
Grover was a part of perhaps the most dominant stretches in St. Peter’s storied history. The Spartans won a state title in 1980, were runners-up in 1977 and 1983 and made Final Four appearances in 1979, 1984, 1987 and 1988.
During Grover’s senior year in 1989, St. Peter’s lost in the district championship game.
“We lost to Buckeye Central,” Grover said.
If the 2018 Cubs are to avoid a similar fate, Grover’s daughters, sophomore Jessie and freshman Jamie, will be a big reason why. Jessie scored 24 points and grabbed 20 rebounds in Thursday’s win over South Central. Jamie picked up her second foul with 5:12 remaining in the first quarter and was in and out of the lineup the rest of the evening. She scored three points, all in the fourth quarter, as Lucas pulled away.
“Jessie Grover is a first-team all-district player and she showed why tonight,” South Central coach John Vogel said. “She did a great job.”
Lucas is not without its faults. The Cubs didn’t shoot the ball especially well against the Trojans, a fact not lost on their coach.
“It’s not always pretty. We miss plenty of shots,” Grover said. “But these girls don’t give up and they just keep attacking the rim.”
The good news for Grover is Lucas will play for a district title without a senior on the roster.
“We have a good young nucleus,” she said. “Hopefully we are putting things in place to be in this position for years to come.”
