by JOHN HOWLEY / sportingpumpkin.com
ASHVILLE — Much like Sunday’s Super Bowl where Kansas City trailed at halftime, fans knew the Chiefs weren’t done. After a tough first half where Circleville trailed Teays Valley, fans knew the undefeated Tigers weren’t done with their special season either.
CHS scored 14 straight in the third and had an 11-point run in the fourth to down host Teays Valley 41-29 and finish off a 14-0 run through the Mid-State League Buckeye Division.
The Vikings kept Circleville (21-0) in check in the first half and gave up only four points to the Tigers in the second quarter as TV had a 16-11 lead at the half.
“It’s two straight halftimes of me essentially questioning their womanhood. It’s not necessarily the effort. In the first half of Bloom-Carroll we looked like we never ran an offense in our life. It’s so frustrating to see them play timid,” Circleville coach Brian Bigam said. “We have to go from playing a certain way in basketball that we did for 15 games with a girl that averaged 18 points to playing differently at times.
“We stood around, held on to the ball too long, weren’t cutting hard and it was ugly. I let them know how I felt about that, to be honest with you, and got after them a little bit. I got a little fired up and vocal a little bit and they answered.”
Teays Valley hit first bucket in the third on a Tessa Horsley basket.
Circleville came back with a pair of free throws from Maddie Blakeman, a basket from Faith Yancey and then a three from Yancey tied the game at 18-18 with 4:39 on the clock.
Ally Thornsley added a bucket for the Tigers and then another basket and a three-pointer from Blakeman had Circleville up 25-18.
Teays Valley scored off a pair of Circleville turnovers in the final 90 seconds to make the score 25-22 heading into the fourth.
TV opened the scoring in the fourth with a three-pointer from Gabrielle Watkins to tie the game but Circleville scored 16 of the last 20 points to cap an unbeaten Mid-State League season.
“I told them in the locker room that if you told me we could go 10-4, 11-3 with Teays returning everyone, Bloom returning everyone, Amanda returning everyone — it just goes to show how gritty and tough my girls are to girl through this gauntlet of a league,” Bigam said. “We talked about being golden. I don’t think the Mid-State League technically has a golden basketball (for going unbeaten), which is unfortunate. To beat Bloom and Teays in two games in three days against those two, I couldn’t be more proud of my girls.”
“They’re playing off their emotions, playing off their experience, they’re playing off their excitement and give all the credit to Circleville, they made plays happen and we stood and watched,” Teays Valley coach Trevor Younkin said. “They worked the ball, and we were caught chasing, which we don’t normally do. We didn’t stick to our basic principles, and we just didn’t execute offensively or defensively.”
Leading the Tigers in the second half was Yancey. The senior all-state soccer player and all-state sprinter had 13 of her game-high 18 points in the second half along with a handful of steals and tough defense.
“I call her a superhero all the time. She just refuses to lose,” Bigam said. “Her demeanor, her grit and just toughness — she was a warrior. She’s done that multiple times this year. She’s our spark plug.
“She doesn’t always score the points but she’s just tenacious in everything that she does. And she’s so important to our success night in and night out.”
CHS also picked up 13 from Blakeman.
Kennedy Younkin led TV with 11 points.
Monday’s contest wraps up the regular season for Teays Valley. TV finished with a 14-8 overall record and went 10-4 in the league, for a third-place finish. They now have a week to prepare for Olentangy Orange paying a visit next Wednesday in the opening round of the Central District Division I tournament.
“Now we move on to the tournament. We lost some games and that’s why you have film,” Younkin said. “We have to study film and look at it. We got to let this go and learn from it. Instead of being a negative, we’ll turn it into a positive and be ready for Olentangy Orange.”
Circleville opens tournament play as the No. 2 seed Thursday hosting No. 15 Vinton County, which beat Washington CH 59-54 Monday.
“We’ve got to shift because Thursday we start the tournament. In the tournament, you can’t necessarily have a first half like we did there,” Bigam said. “Coach Younkin does a great job. Defensively, he throws some stuff at you … it takes you out of rhythm and it takes you a while to get accustomed to. Come tournament time, you’ve got to be ready to roll from the opening tip.”
After that tournament game, Circleville has one last regular season game on the schedule as they are set to host Chillicothe at 11:30 Saturday morning.
Circleville 41, Teays Valley 29
Circleville — Faith Yancey 7-2-18, Maddie Blakeman 5-2-13, Isabelle Perini 0-2-2, Ally Thornsley 2-0-4, Gabby McConnell 2-0-4. Three-point goals — Yancey (2), Blakeman. Total — 16-6-41.
Teays Valley — Gabrielle Watkins 1-2-5, Abby Tier 1-0-2, Cami Robins 1-0-2, Kennedy Younkin 5-1-11, Alyssa Horsley 2-0-5, Avery Mann 1-0-2, Tessa Horsley 1-0-2. Three-point goals — Watkins, A Horsley. Total— 12-3-29.
Quarter scores 1 2 3 4 F
Circleville 7 4 14 16 41
Teays Valley 8 8 6 7 29
