BELLVILLE — Ahmani Mitchell came to life in the fourth quarter.
Mansfield Senior’s junior forward scored all nine of her points in the final period and the seventh-seeded Tygers avenged a season-opening loss to Clear Fork with a 53-48 win over the No. 6 Colts in the opening round of the Division II sectional tournament Wednesday at Les Hauenstein Gymnasium.
The Tygers will host No. 9 Ontario at 7 p.m. Saturday in a sectional championship game. The Warriors stunned third-seeded Clyde 50-49 on Wednesday night.
The game was tied 34-34 after three quarters when Mitchell went to work. The 5-foot-11 post scored on a pair of putbacks after offensive rebounds in the opening minute of the fourth to give the Tygers a 38-34 advantage. She added a pair of layups and split a pair of free throws with 48.5 seconds remaining before fouling out with 35 seconds to play.
“I’ve not been myself and this could have been my last game, so I just had to show out,” Mitchell said. “I couldn’t let my team down.”
Mitchell averaged just 2.8 points a game during the regular season on 40 percent shooting.
“She’s been struggling with just finishing,” Senior High coach JeVar Hudgens said. “She has the moves, she just hasn’t been able to finish. She was able to finish today and you see the results.”
Mitchell had the unenviable task of guarding Bekah Conrad, Clear Fork’s 6-foot-4 junior center. Conrad led all scorers with 26 points. She scored 20 of Clear Fork’s 28 points in the second half.
“You have to stay behind her and live with her turning around and hoping she misses the shot,” Hudgens said. “Then you’ve got to box her out.”
While Conrad was a one-player wrecking crew, Mansfield Senior spread the wealth. Kiyah Wentz led the charge with 14 points, including four in the final seven seconds of the first half to pull the Tygers into a 20-20 halftime tie at the break. Freshman sharpshooter Kiersten Bradley had 12 points on four 3-pointers. Mitchell had nine, while Julia Rizzo added eight and Briana Perry chipped in with six.
“That team right there is a team that can definitely win sectional finals,” Clear Fork coach Scott Sellers said “They’ve got four kids who can straight-out play. We knew that going in.
“They just hit more shots than we did.”
Senior Morgan Galco had six points in her final game for the Colts. Clear Fork will also lose Josie Schwaner and Hallie Gottfried to graduation.
“I love all those kids,” Sellers said of his three seniors. “I learned more from them than they learned from me.”
Sellers started three underclassmen, including a freshman.
“I think we did about as well as I expected,” said Sellers, who is in his first year as head coach. “I can confidently say that we are a hard-trying team and our skill is going to take a year to catch up with our effort.
“I’m proud of the effort.”
