After turning the ball over on consecutive possessions, Moody blocked a Mahya Lindesmith layup attempt with under a minute to go, and the Knights came up with the ball.
That forced Badin to start fouling, and Alter went 6 for 8 from the line to hold off their GCL Co-Ed rival.
The Knights (26-1) are headed to their ninth state tournament and first since 2017. That was the end of a stretch that saw them make four in a row and win it all three times.
Christina Hart, Alter’s co-head coach along with Kendal Peck, said she had not forgotten what it felt like to cut down the net after a game like that.
“No, but I’ll tell you, it never gets old,” she said. “This team is really special because they’ve never experienced this. So to be able to experience this with them was really awesome.”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Jada Pohlen, who scored her 1,000th career point during the contest, led the Rams (21-7) with 10 points while fellow senior Lindesmith had eight.
“It takes a lot to get this far, and I’m proud of our girls,” said Badin coach Tom Sunderman. “We got too far in a hole. We were forcing some shots, but we got back to what we did. We told them to shoot with confidence, let it go and play ‘D’ and see what happens. We laid it on the line, so I’m not disappointed.”
Alter beat Badin for a third time this season and will play Columbus Bishop Hartley in a state semifinal at 8 p.m. Thursday at UD Arena.
The Knights earned the opportunity by jumping on the Rams then hanging on late.
The teams traded the lead four times in the first six minutes before the Knights went on a prolonged 11-0 run that lasted until Lindesmith hit two free throws with 3:27 to go in the second quarter.
Romer, a 5-foot-10 senior, started Alter’s run with a pair of free throws with 4:20 on the clock in the first quarter that gave Alter a 6-5 lead. Hannah Mayse extended the lead with a 3-pointer two possessions later, then both teams struggled to score.
Moody extended the lead with a layup early in the second quarter, and then she set up a layup for Riley Smith to make it 13-5.
Smith answered a pair of Lindesmith free throws with a midrange jumper, and Moody hit two free throws with under 10 seconds to go to set the halftime margin at 17-7.
It grew to 23-7 before Badin junior Katherine Beeber swished a 3-pointer with 3:35 left in the third quarter to end a field goal drought that lasted more than two full quarters.
Alter’s lead peaked at 27-10 late in the third quarter, but the Rams found some life early in the fourth quarter.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
An Ella Mangino 3-pointer and an old-fashioned three-point play by Pohlen cut the deficit to 37-33 with 2:98 left, and later a Beeber free throw made it a one-possession game with 1:15 left.
“They hit some 3s,” Hart said. “That’s what they do. You knew they weren’t going to stay cold all night. I thought we did an awesome job setting the tone in the first half with our defense. They scratched and they clawed. We doubled when we weren’t supposed to a couple of times, and they got some momentum. They hit some 3s. That’s gonna happen.”
Sunderman said he told his team to keep believing they could come back throughout the game.
“Maybe we should have come out a little more aggressive earlier, but defensively we did a great job,” he said. “If you only give up 17 points (in a half), you’re probably going to win that game — especially for us who average 54 points a game. But we weren’t getting it done on the offensive end.”
Moody, a 6-1 freshman, was the most consistent offensive threat for either team all night, finding ways to score around the basket and providing a big presence on defense.
Sophomores Smith and Mayse chipped in a combined 11 points as youthful contributors continued to be big for Alter, as has been the case all year with Smith averaging a team-best 14.2 points per game and Moody behind her at 11.8.
“They bring freshmen and sophomores in, and it doesn’t say freshman or sophomore on their uniform — it says Alter,” Sunderman said. “That’s what we told our girls. I thought they had a good game plan. Their height hurt us in the long run. We saw that on film. We probably could have kicked it a little bit earlier, gotten more kickouts, but kudos to them.”
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