INDIAN HILL — The Wilmington Hurricane girls advanced in the post-season tournament Tuesday with a 33-20 defensive showdown victory over Roger Bacon at Indian Hill High School.
Wilmington (13-10) will play 5:30 p.m. Feb. 28 at Indian Hill against either Mercy McAuley or Badin.
The Roger Bacon season ends with a 9-14 record.
The star of the game was Elle Martin who poured in 18 points in the Hurricane win.
“She’s just really stepping in here and being a solid leader on and off the floor coming down the end of this season,” said Wilmington head coach Zach Williams. “She’s done a great job of taking care and trying to calm things down and stepping up. To her credit, she’s battling.”
Both teams were sloppy on offense early and the defenses made them pay. Neither team scored in the first four minutes of the game, until Roger Bacon’s Gussie Hoffman got to the line and knocked a pair down for a 2-0 lead. Afterward, not much changed but Elle Martin put together five unanswered points to put Wilmington on top 5-2 after one.
Martin continued her scoring surge into the second quarter knocking down one at the line for the first points of the quarter, then put in a tough layup in transition giving the Hurricane an 8-2 lead in which Martin held all the points
The Spartans eventually managed to get their first points from the field when Morgan Rohling stole the ball and put in a fast-break layup, but the Hurricane was unrelenting, going on a 7-0 run to finish the first half with a 15-4 lead
“Huge run to give the girls some confidence,” Williams said. “Our girls were dialed in on the defensive gameplan and I think that’s what it takes right now in the sectionals, being in on the gameplan and everyone being on the same page of what we want to do, and they did it,” said Williams.
Neither team scored early in the third, until Hoffman again got to the line and knocked down a pair to start a mini-run of five straight points for the Spartans.
Martin finally got one to go to halt the Spartans run. The two teams traded free throws before Brynn Conley worked her way to the basket for the Hurricane. This would be instantly matched as Hoffman knocked down a three at the buzzer to cut the lead to 21-13 entering the final quarter.
RB opened the fourth trying to climb back in it from the three-point line. The Spartans pulled with five, but back-to-back threes from Martin and Ali Bayless proved to be the dagger as the Hurricane advanced with their second tournament win.
SUMMARY
Feb 20, 2024
Tournament Game
@ Indian Hill High School
Wilmington 33, Roger-Bacon 20
RB^2^2^9^7^^20
W^5^10^6^12^^33
(33) WILMINGTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Brown 0-0-0-0, Nance 0-0-2-2, Martin 1-0-0-2, Hudson 0-0-0-0, Conley 1-0-0-2, Cole 0-0-0-0, Martin 2-2-8-18, Bayless 1-1-0-5, Tippett 2-0-0-4, Walker 0-0-0-0 TOTALS 10-3-10-33
(20) ROGER-BACON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Schlinter 1-2-0-8, Rohling 0-0-0-0, Grosser 0-0-0-0, Gapultos 0-0-0-0, Roffert 1-0-0-2, Ernst 1-0-0-2, Vondrell 0-0-0-0, Hoffman 1-0-4-6, Fulton 0-0-1-1, Rolfort 0-0-0-0, Henderson 0-0-1-1, Stirling 0-0-0-0, Hasan 0-0-0-0 TOTALS 6-2-6-20
