WILMINGTON — For the second straight season, East Clinton is headed back to Springfield.
The Astros defeated Norwood 54-49 Saturday afternoon in the Division III Wilmington Sectional Championship game at Fred Summers Court.
East Clinton (23-2) will play Anna Saturday at Springfield High School in a Division III Southwest District championship game. Tip time has not been announced by the Southwest District Athletic Board.
The fast-paced game would begin anyway but fast. A beautiful inside feed from Libby Evanshine gave Kami Whiteaker the first points of the game. It also represented the senior duo’s excellence throughout the tournament.
After this score, the two defenses kept the offenses in check until an Evanshine putback sparked a 5-0 run for the Astros. East Clinton led 9-1 but Norwood closed the opening quarter strong and trailed 9-6 going to the second.
Lydia Moyers scored to make it 9-8 then the teams went back and forth with several lead changes. Eventually, Norwood went on a 9-2 run then East Clinton scored 11 of 13 points in one stretch.
Jordan Collom and Megan Tong hit back-to-back three-pointers for East Clinton to put the Astros on top 20-17.
After a Norwood basket, 20-19, Whiteaker hit a three and East Clinton led 25-21 at halftime.
The offenses took over in the third as the teams combined for 36 points. It was close most of the way before East Clinton’s 9-4 run to end the period gave the Astros a 45-37 cushion entering the final period of play.
Norwood showed its grit early, scoring 10 of the first 13 points to make it a 48-47 game. Tong remained lights out beyond the arc with another three-pointer. Evanshine had a steal inside the final minute that led to a Lauren Stonewall free throw. Kylie Jones of Norwood had a steal to give her squad a chance to tie but East Clinton’s defense held strong.
Collom had a couple of clutch free throws in the end to give the Astros the victory.
SUMMARY
Feb 18, 2023
Div III Wilmington Sectional
@Fred Summers Court
East Clinton 54, Norwood 49
EC^9^16^20^9^^54
N^6^15^16^12^^49
(54) EAST CLINTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Collom 2-1-4-9 Evanshine 6-0-0-12 Whiteaker 4-1-0-9 Jones 1-0-1-3 Murphy 4-2-3-13 Tong 3-2-0-8 TOTALS 20-6-8/10-54
(49) NORWOOD (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Ali Winchester 6-3-0-15 Murphy 0-0-2-2 Moyers 1-0-4-6 Ava Winchester 0-0-0-0 Jones 9-2-0-20 Segrist-Belard 3-0-0-6 Smith 0-0-0-0 TOTALS 19-5-6/14-49
FIELD GOALS: EC (20-53)
3 PT FIELD GOALS: EC (6-22) Tong 2-5
FREE THROWS: EC (8-10) Collom 4-4, Murphy 3-4
REBOUNDS: EC-30 (Murphy 10, Evanshine 9, Jones 4, Collom 3, Whiteaker 3, Tong 1)
ASSISTS: EC-14 (Collom 5, Evanshine 4, Murphy 3, Whiteaker 2)
STEALS: EC-8 (Evanshine 3, Murphy 3, Collom 2)
BLOCKS: EC-1 (Evanshine 1)
TURNOVERS: EC-11
Samuel Gould is a student at Clinton-Massie. He covers high school sports for the News Journal.
