NEW WASHINGTON — They are among the most tradition-rich small-school programs in Ohio and they will duke it out Friday afternoon at the University of Dayton Arena.
Division IV heavyweights Buckeye Central (25-1) and Waterford (24-3) will meet in the second of two state semifinal games at 2 p.m. Friday. New Knoxville (26-2) and Cincinnati County Day (19-5) square off in the early game at noon.
The Buckettes are making their seventh Final Four appearance. The Wildcats are in the state tournament for the sixth time.
Buckeye Central made its first state tournament appearance in 1982, falling in the Class A championship game to Zanesville Rosecrans. The Buckettes had their revenge three years later, beating Rosecrans in the Class A state semifinals before knocking off Tipp City Bethel in the championship game. Buckeye made it back to the state tournament in 1986 and 1990 and was Division IV state runner-up in 1992. The Buckettes wouldn’t reach the Final Four again until 2018.
Waterford was state runner-up in 2015, its first-ever Final Four appearance. The Wildcats won it all in 2016 and were runners-up again in 2017. Waterford joined Buckeye Central in the Division IV Final Four in 2018 and reached the state semifinals again last year, falling to McDonald 57-29 in the semifinals.
Seniors Mackenzie Suprano and Cara Taylor combined for 24 of Waterford’s 29 points in last year’s semifinal loss. Suprano had 12 points in Waterford’s 40-33 win over Glouster Trimble in the regional championship game, while Taylor had six points. Avery Wagner, a 6-foot-4 freshman center, had six points, eight rebounds and six blocked shots.
Seniors Claudia Pifher and Emily Siesel are Buckeye Central’s answer to Suprano and Taylor. Pifher led the Northern 10 athletic conference in scoring at 20.7 points a game and passed Jenna Karl to become the program’s career scoring leader — despite missing the first half of the season with a broken wrist suffered in a preseason scrimmage against Loudonville. Siesel was second in the N10 in scoring at 19 points a game and led the conference in assists (5.4) and steals (7.0).
Junior Ryley Kantzer came up big in Buckeye Central’s 48-32 win over Dalton in the regional championship game, scoring 11 points while defending Dalton’s high-scoring Addesa Miller.
“I prepared the last couple of weeks for that because I knew they were going to take away Emily and they were going to take away Claudia,” Kantzer said. “I’ve been (in the regional final) before as a freshman and it was my turn to pick up the slack for us.”
The Buckettes trailed Dalton 18-11 midway through the second quarter, but outscored the Bulldogs 37-14 the rest of the way. Dalton managed just four points during a span of 17:35 during the second, third and fourth quarters before scoring 10 points in the final 2:37 after the outcome was decided.
“Defense wins games in March and I thought our defense down the stretch was legit,” Buckeye Central coach Abram Kaple said. “A lot of it just comes down to effort, basic fundamentals of positioning and understanding your scouting report. We are so big on understanding the scouting report.
“We flat out played hard.”
