BELLVILLE — Clear Fork came out swinging early and held on for dear life late.
Lilly Wortman connected on four first-half 3-pointers and the Colts survived state-ranked Cardington’s spirited fourth-quarter rally in a 60-48 win Tuesday at Les Hauenstein Gymnasium.
The Pirates (15-2) trailed 46-29 after three quarters and 48-29 early in the fourth before scoring 14 unanswered points to cut Clear Fork’s advantage to 48-43 on Beth Hardwick’s layup with 4:14 remaining. The Colts (17-3) led 52-47 with 2:30 left before closing with an 8-1 run to win going away.
“It’s probably the biggest win that our program has had in maybe the last 10 years,” Clear Fork coach Scott Sellers said. “That is an incredibly talented, hard-nosed, gritty team that knows how to win.”
It looked like Clear Fork might run away and hide in the early-going. The Colts connected on their first seven field goal attempts, opening a 17-9 lead after one. The advantage ballooned to 32-21 at the half as Wortman, who came in averaging 9.9 points a game, canned three 3s in the second quarter alone.
“She’s been shooting like that all year for us. She’s such a good player,” Sellers said. “We came out with a lot of energy.
“It was about the best half we have played this year, giving up 21 points to a team as explosive and as good as Cardington. Defensively, we were really locked in.”
The third quarter was more of the same as Bekah Conrad, Clear Fork’s 6-foot-4 senior center, began to take control. Conrad scored eight points in the period and 17 of her game-high 25 in the second half.
“In the first half, it was the 3s. (Wortman) hit four,” Cardington coach Jamie Edwards said. “In the second half we took away the 3 … but they lob it in there (to Conrad). What can you do?”
Wortman backed Conrad with 15 points. Annika Labaki had eight points while Pacey Chrastina chipped in with six.
Dana Bertke led the Pirates with 16 points, nine of which came in the fourth quarter. Hardwick, Mikayla Linkous and Emalee Artz had seven points apiece.
Cardington was ranked sixth in Division III in the most recent Associated Press state poll, released Tuesday. The Pirates have won seven straight conference championships — the past four in the Knox Morrow Athletic Conference and three in the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference.
“Cardington knows how to win. You don’t win seven conference championships in a row for no reason,” Sellers said. “We wanted to keep Cardington on our schedule because I knew how good they are. I wanted it late (in the season). We’re trying to (schedule) better opponents, especially late in the season.”
