MADISON TOWNSHIP — Every team in north central Ohio has dealt with adversity during this coronavirus-ravaged season, but none more than Madison.
The Rams played their 12th and final regular season game Thursday night, falling to Ohio Cardinal Conference champion West Holmes 62-32 at Madison Middle School.
Madison lost almost half of its 22-game regular season to the pandemic, but that only tells a fraction of the story. The Rams have been in and out of quarantine four times and have played more games than they have had practices.
“We didn’t play from Nov. 28 to Jan. 26 or 27, I’m not even sure what the day was, and we couldn’t practice during that time,” Madison coach Brian Davis said. “We started in November and had some practices before the girls from the (state championship) soccer team came in, but we’ve had more games than practices with our full squad.
“It’s been difficult, but all we can do is try to stay positive.”
Playing its second game in as many days after falling at Lexington on Wednesday, the Rams (3-9) looked fatigued against the OCC-champion Knights (17-4). Madison turned the ball over on four of its first five possessions as the Knights raced out to a 7-0 advantage in the opening three minutes.
“We got home late from Lex last night and the girls had a test they had to take and they told me they didn’t get to bed until 1:30,” Davis said. “We kind of knew what to expect. There were spurts when we looked really good and there were spurts when we looked tired.”
West Holmes led 22-11 after the first quarter and was never seriously threatened after that. The Knights built a 31-15 halftime advantage and led 45-25 after three.
“We have five or six different kids step up and score for us. It’s hard to prepare for us that way,” West Holmes coach Lindsy Snyder said. “That’s what we want. We don’t want one person having 30 points a night. We pride ourselves on sharing the basketball.”
Katie Sprang led 10 Knights in the scoring column with 15 points. Hannah Rohr added 11, including a trio of 3-pointers.
“I’m happy with how they performed offensively,” Snyder said. “They shared the ball well.”
Chesney Davis led Madison with 13 points. Kari Eckenwiler added eight.
“Those two are nice scorers,” Snyder said. “We gave up a couple of easy ones and we would like to eliminate those, but in the grand scheme of things we held a team with a couple of different options to 32 points.”
The Rams will have a week to prepare for their tournament opener. Madison will open Division I sectional play at Wapakoneta on Feb. 18.
“We’ll have four days to prepare and it’s the first time since our season opener against Clear Fork that we’ll have four days to prepare for a team,” Davis said. “The girls have played a lot of minutes in the last couple of weeks and they are a little worn down mentally and physically, but all we can do is stay positive and get to the tournament.
“We’re looking toward the tournament and we think we can compete well against Wapakoneta.”
