Floyd, Worthy key Eagles past No. 5 Yellow Jackets
1/29/2013There's a little Magic in Tierra Floyd's game.
Undefeated Perrysburg, the No. 5 ranked Division I girls basketball team in Ohio, had to deal with Notre Dame's talented 6-foot sophomore guard Saturday night in a battle of two of the area’s best teams.
Floyd engineered the Eagles (13-3) to a gritty 40-38 victory before an enthusiastic home crowd, handing the Yellow Jackets (14-1) their first loss of the season.
Jayda Worthy pumped in a game-high 17 points, including 11 in the first half, and grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds for Notre Dame. Christy Ohlinger added eight points.
Floyd, taller than most point guards much like the legendary Magic Johnson, made her presence felt while scoring just one point.
She dished out a game-high nine assists and grabbed eight rebounds before fouling out in the final seconds. Six of her assists came in the first half to help the Eagles jump out to an early lead and eventual 23-15 halftime advantage.
"She dominates the game," Notre Dame coach Travis Galloway said. "She did a great job of handling the ball and getting us in the right spots.
"She can score and she can put up numbers, but she's such a great overall player that she finds the open people because she's very unselfish. She did a great job in the first half of getting us great looks."
The early lead for Notre Dame put Perrysburg in an uncharacteristic position of playing a game of catch-up down the stretch.
"I thought it was a great game," Perrysburg coach Todd Sims said. "It was a great high school game.
"We made a really good run in the fourth quarter. We were down by 10 on another team's court in the fourth quarter. As a coach, you ask for a shot to win, that's what you at least have in your mind."
Abby Sattler, a 5-4 junior guard, led the Yellow Jackets with 10 points, including seven in the fourth quarter. Alexx Brown finished with nine points and Sarah Baer added eight. Perrysburg outscored the Eagles 14-6 in the final period.
A 3-pointer by Sattler tied the score at 37 with 47.5 seconds left. The long-range jumpshot brought the Yellow Jackets crowd to its feet.
However, the Eagles went ahead 40-37 after Worthy was fouled 20 seconds later. She made the first free throw and Kaayla McIntyre scored on a putback after rebounding Worthy’s missed second attempt.
The Eagles led by as much as 13 points in the second half before the Yellow Jackets made a late fourth-quarter run that came up short when Brown's wide-open look from 3-point range with three seconds left bounced off the back iron. Notre Dame committed 10 of its 18 turnovers against Perrysburg’s fullcourt pressure in the fourth quarter. Perrysburg was guilty of 15 turnovers, but only two in the final quarter.
"We survived and that's the name of the game," Galloway said.
The Eagles finished out the final seconds of the game without Floyd, who picked up her fifth foul with 10 seconds remaining.
Contact Donald Emmons at: demmons@theblade.com, 419-724-6302 or on Twitter @DemmonsBlade.