Rogers falls late against Lima Bath
3/6/2012ADA -- Lima Bath was slowly wilting under Rogers' full-court pressure.
Just when it looked like Rogers would take charge, Bath's 6-foot-1 Kaitlin Singhaus came up with a big offensive rebound.
Singhaus' putback off a missed free throw helped lift Lima Bath to a 63-59 victory over Rogers in a Division II girls basketball regional semifinal Tuesday at Ohio Northern University.
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Bath led 52-41 with 6:30 to go. But Rogers switched to a man-to-man, full-court press, and Bath turned the ball over three times in a two-minute stretch. That pulled Rogers within 57-55 with 2:02 left.
Bath's Taylor Dackin missed both free throws, but Singhaus pulled down the rebound off the second miss and tossed in a sweeping left-handed putback and was fouled. When she completed the three-point play, the Wildcats' lead grew to 60-55 with 1:59 left.
"I thought that possession was the key possession of the game," Bath coach Greg Mauk said.
Rogers came back and sliced the lead to 61-59 on a putback by Ka'Bria Walker with 58 seconds to go. After Bath missed two free throws, Rogers called time-out with 25 seconds left.
Cha'Ron Sweeney missed a 3-pointer from the right wing with 12 seconds left, and Bath's Jenna Hollar rebounded and was fouled. Hollar dropped in both free throws to seal it at 63-59 with eight seconds to go.
"We needed to attack the basket at the end, and we settled for a 3-point shot," Rogers coach Lamar Smith said. "But you have to ride with your players sometimes and if she would have made it, it would have been a great shot."
Bath's Emily Ruhe had 18 points and 10 rebounds. Jess Johns had 17 points, while Singhaus had 13 points and 13 rebounds.
Bath (22-2) advances to the regional championship game against Clyde (23-1) at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Ontario High School. Rogers ends its season 19-5.
The key, defensively, for Bath was slowing down Rogers' ultra-quick point guard Sweeney, who ended up with eight points and six assists. Sweeney was hounded by Johns in Bath's triangle-and-two defense and hit only 3 of 17 from the field.
"The main focus was to slow her down," Johns said.
Sasha Dailey led Rogers with 14 points and six rebounds. Briauna Nix scored 13 on 6 of 10 shooting.
"We started out in a 2-3 zone, but the problem we had was number one, Dailey and Sweeney decided they were going to get in the gaps of our 2-3 zone and they really hurt us in the first quarter," Mauk said. "We went to our triangle [and two] defense, and we were going to guard Sweeney and Dailey man-to-man, and if they happen to get beat off the dribble, we were going to have another person standing in behind."
Bath won the boards 36-35. Bath shot 42 percent from the field, while Rogers hit 39 percent.
"We made some adjustments and put some pressure on them full court, and they started making a lot [of] turnovers [14], but our girls didn't come out with the energy we needed in the beginning of the game," Smith said.