“We had more of a positive outlook, we had to keep our heads up, move on from the mistakes and get it back on defense,” Romer said. “We really came together, recollected ourselves as a team and I knew that we were in it for the long haul.”
The second half wasn’t beautiful on offense – hard to imagine Granville letting any team freely operate – but it was better because the Knights’ attacked the Blue Aces’ 1-3-1 zone instead of running from it and throwing the ball away. And the Knights’ defense returned the favor, stifling everything Granville tried to run for most of the half.
The result: A season of firsts for this group of Knights continued into the Division II regional final with a 39-36 victory over a Granville team that lost in the regional semifinals for the second straight year.
“This group is special,” Romer said. “The seniors have been in been in it together since freshman year. So it’s a special moment for all of us, not just the seniors, but the whole team.”
The next opponent is a familiar one. At 7 p.m. Friday at Springfield High School, the Knights (25-1) will face Greater Catholic League Co-ed rival Badin. The Rams (21-6) survived a big comeback by Eaton to win 51-44 and advance to the regional final for the second straight year.
Alter beat Badin by six and 10 points this season. To do it again the Knights will rely on the defense that held Granville (24-2) to 14 second-half points.
“They run a ton of sets, and we took them out of most of what they were trying to do,” Alter co-head coach Chris Hart said. “And we wore them out. They didn’t have their legs to hit as many shots in the later part of the game.”
Granville did make a 3-pointer with 11 seconds left to cut Alter’s lead to 38-36. Romer made a free throw with four seconds left. She missed the second but ran down the rebound in the right corner to seemingly end the game. However, Granville was granted a timeout. The Blue Aces’ final attempt tie never had a chance.
Alter has a mix of seniors and young players. Freshman Maddie Moody led the Knights with 12 points and Romer had 10.
“Karlie made some big shots for us and got some really important rebounds all night,” Hart said. “She played pretty solid all night.”
None of the players were part of the last Alter teams to make tournament runs. This is the Knights’ first trip beyond districts since their three-year state title run that ended in 2017.
“Every time you get a chance to run this deep in the tournament, it’s special,” Hart said. “It’s really special when it’s everybody’s first time. Watching them have that opportunity to enjoy this journey is really fun.”
The deep, unexpected and fun run by Eaton came to end. The Eagles (13-14) opened tournament play with a 13-point comeback against Ben Logan, almost blew a 22-point lead to Urbana, rallied from nine down against Carroll and finally from eight down against Cincinnati Summit Country Day to win their first district title.
“I’m incredibly proud of who this team became, what they accomplished,” Eaton coach Dave Honhart said. “We believed that we could and would win every one of these games. But it probably took a while for others to jump on the bandwagon.”
The bandwagon looked stuck in a ditch down 30-18 at halftime and 42-29 entering the fourth quarter. But after being down by as many 15 in the third, the Eagles didn’t quit. They cut the deficit to 45-39 by the 5:12 mark of the fourth quarter. The Eagles got as close as 47-44 with 1:25 left, but they were unable to get any closer.
Lily Shepherd led the Eagles with 17 points and Olivia Baumann added 12.
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