Tough Loss, but a Great Season

The Clinton-Massie Lady Falcons season came to an end last night with a loss to Alter at Springfield High School in the Regional Semifinal. It was a tough way to end the season, but what a great season it was for the team.

Both teams entered the game undefeated and Alter couldn’t seem to miss, hitting 6 out of 9 three pointers in the first half. Massie had a tough time getting the ball in the bucket and that trend just carried on through the game. By the end of the game Massie didn’t make a three-point shot.

Syd came into the game with a dislocated index finger on her shooting. The injury occurred in the first quarter of the District Final game last Friday night. She played through the pain, even breaking open the stitches at some point in the first quarter. She led the team in scoring with ten points. She had tweeted that this was going to be a toughness test. I would say she definitely passed.

The Lady Falcons made school and county history by going through the regular season undefeated. They ended the season with a 26-1 record, three-peating as SCOL champions and repeating as District champs. They have much to be proud of.

District Champs!

The Clinton-Massie Lady Falcons are District Champs for the first time in school history. It was an exciting game last Friday night as they jumped out to a lead over Norwood and didn’t let them back in the game. The defense the Falcons played was intense from the first through the fourth quarter.

The Wilmington News-Journal had an excellent article on Massie’s victory, which you can read below.

On a side note, the Cincinnati Angels (Syd’s AAU team) are well represented in this year’s tournament. The Angels sent out an email listing current and former Angels’ players whose teams are moving forward in the tournament. Way to go Angels!

Division I:

Mason
• Kayla McDowell – Alum
• Jenna Gunn – 17U

Princeton
• LaJessica Olverson- 14U

Centerville
• Alex Henning- Alum

Twinsburg
• Marisa Howard- 17U

Reynoldsburg
• Alyssa Rice- 17U
• Nicole Orr- 17U

Toledo Notre Dame Academy
• Tierra Floyd- 17U

Division II:

Clinton-Massie
• Sydney Brackemyre- 17U
• Kasey Uetrecht- 16U

Division III:

Fayetteville Perry
• Megan Eyre – 16U

Middletown Madison
• Olivia Philpot- 16U

Here’s the Wilmington News-Journal article on the Falcons’ win:

MASON – In late December, many had written off the Clinton-Massie girls basketball team after a devastating injury and tough loss to Wilmington.

Two months later, the Lady Falcons are district champions.

Clinton-Massie won the school’s first girls basketball district championship Friday night, defeating Norwood 54-32 at Mason High School.

“The girls have worked hard, and they had a goal,” said CM head coach Allen Wilkinson. “They’ve done all they could do to make that happen. They’ve faced many different types of adversity.

“We’ve always had someone different step up every night.”

Clinton-Massie executed offensively with high precision in the first quarter, jumping out to a 16-3 lead. For good measure, Kasey Uetrecht threw one in from 45 feet to end the first quarter. Massie led 21-8.

Then, the Falcons just wore them down.

Norwood, playing just six players for most of the game, slowly started to fade as the game continued. Outstanding freshman Hannah Tubbs, who came in averaging 18 points per game, was held to just 11 points on 4 of 12 shooting.

“We don’t press, we just put pressure on the point guard to wear her down,” said Wilkinson. “Brittany Smith and Miquela Santoro did an outstanding job on Tubbs. Mary (Moyer) did a great job on (Natalie) Stoeppel.”

Moyer and the Falcon defense frustrated Stoeppel at every turn, causing her to take two straight charging calls which sent her to the bench with four fouls in the third quarter. She finished with just two points.

“We tried to keep (Tubbs and Stoeppel) out of the paint,” said Wilkinson. “They like to get in the paint and get to the free throw line.”

Clinton-Massie (21-5) didn’t just outplay Norwood (21-4), they outworked them. The Falcons outrebounded the Indians 45-27 and chased down numerous loose balls for second and third opportunities.

“We rebounded very well,” Wilkinson said. “We got to loose balls. We did a great job on 50/50 balls.”

Uetrecht was dominant inside, scoring 12 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. Moyer added 10 points, five rebounds and four assists. Allyson Monnin added 11 rebounds.

With a berth in the state’s final 16 teams, the Falcons are playing its best basketball at the right time.

“The sky’s the limit with this group,” Wilkinson said. “I told them in the locker room that the only person that can tell you ‘no’ is yourself and you don’t have to listen to yourself.”

Dayton Carroll awaits the Lady Falcons 8 p.m. Tuesday at Springfield High School. Carroll ended Talawanda’s unbeaten season Friday night in the district championship, 43-41.

“They’re very physical,” Wilkinson said. “They’re very big and they’re very good. They are a very well-coached team.”

Classic in the Country Recap

My wife and I were able to take in a couple of games at the Classic in the Country Challenge this weekend. We got up to Berlin in time on Sunday to watch Kettering Fairmont play. I’ve seen a few of their players on the AAU circuit, but haven’t seen the high school team play. They handled the ball well through the game and stretched out to a 20+ lead in the second half.

Clinton-Massie played on Monday morning. They went up against an undefeated team from Division III, Proctorville Fairland. The Falcons played them well, but just couldn’t get the shots to fall in the fourth quarter.

Blue Star Media had a recap of the game and gave some deserved recognition to Kasey Uetrecht. She has been Syd’s teammate during school and summer ball and is a solid player.

The first game of the day had a missing element that most likely would have had a tremendous impact on the ultimate outcome. While Proctorville Fairland got the 60 – 47 win over Clinton Massie, it’s hard to imagine that injured (ACL) CM junior standout and nationally ranked forward Sydney Brackemyre might not have influenced the final score to some degree. As it was, Fairland utilized a 18 – 7 fourth quarter to break open a two point game and make the final margin a deceiving 13 points. Junior guard Chandler Faulks led the way for the Dragons with 20, 12 of which came as a result of her 4 for 10 three-point effort. Minnesota early commit Tera Stapleton, a 6-4 2014 post, added a double-double with 13 points and 11 boards in the win. Clinton Massie got 14 from versatile junior swing player Kasey Uetrecht and another 10 from senior Mary Moyer. Both teams rebounded even at 37 for the game while Fairland finished with 13 turnovers to the Falcons 11. In the end Clinton Massie’s 24 percent second half shooting was their downfall despite getting seven more attempts from the floor over the course of the game.

Great job Lady Falcons!

Tough Loss but Great Season

The Lady Falcon’s road through the playoffs came to an abrupt stop Saturday at Springboro High School.  The girls played a great game against #1 Chaminade-Julienne.  For a young team (CM has no seniors this year), they played very well and had to deal with full-court pressure the entire second half.

We are proud of the Falcons and see a bright future ahead.

Here’s the summary from the Wilmington-News Journal:

Where’s Bryce Drew when you need him? Running a play reminiscent of Valparaiso’s “Pacer” to upset Ole Miss in the first round of the 1998 NCAA men’s basketball tournament at the buzzer, Clinton-Massie (19-4) hoped to do the same against state-ranked Chaminade-Julienne (21-2).

“Brianna (Machado) made a great throw. Kasey (Uetrecht) made a great catch. We had an opportunity,” Massie head coach Allen Wilkinson said.

But CJ swooped in front of Uetrecht’s pass to Sydney Brackemyre to escape with a 44-42 Division II girl’s district semifinal victory at Springboro High School Saturday.

It was a heart-breaking defeat to the state’s fifth-ranked team in Division II (The Associated Press). The Falcons led from late in the first quarter until the midway point of the third quarter.

Massie led 8-4 after the opening period on the strength of six points by Brackemyre. She scored the first four points of the second quarter to double Massie’s lead. The Falcons extended their cushion to 18-8 with 3:21 left in the half. The Falcons held a 20-13 advantage at the break, led by Brackemyre’s 12 points.

“Our defense did an excellent job,” Wilkinson said. “I think it frustrated them. We didn’t allow slashes to the basket. I thought we did a good job rebounding and holding them a lot of one-and-dones.”

Brackemyre finished with a game-high 16.

The Eagles opened the third quarter with a 10-2 run, scoring off four Falcon turnovers and finally getting those slashes to the basket, to take a 23-22 lead. After Brackemyre’s only field goal of the second half briefly gave Massie back the lead, Emily Michael buried a three to ignite a 7-0 run. Four of those points came off Massie miscues.

Michael shared team scoring honors with Krista White. Both chipped in with 14 points.

CJ led 32-27 entering the final period. Its lead bounced between three and six points until a Uetrecht bucket cut CJ’s lead to 44-42 with a little more than a minute left in the game.

The Falcons were within three points of CJ on four occasions but could not get that crucial stop or bucket to tie the game.

CJ missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 51.7 seconds left, setting up a Falcon possession during which they had five cracks at the basket. Brittaney Jefferson finally yanked down the rebound and headed to the line where she misfired on the 1-and-1 with 12.3 seconds left.

She tracked down her own rebound and was able to get the ball to Erinn Bailey, whom the Falcons promptly fouled with 5.8 seconds to go. Bailey missed the free throw, but CJ secured the rebound yet again. Raytea Long headed to the line with 3.9 seconds left. She missed and Massie secured the rebound, setting up its game-winning attempt with 3.3 seconds left.

OGBR & JJHuddle Polls

Each week OBGR and JJHuddle release their polls for all the divisions in both girls and boys basketball.  The Clinton-Massie Lady Falcons have been ranked the last few weeks and continues to keep their spot.  Keep up to good work and let’s hope for a deep run in the play-offs this year!

DIVISION II

1. Dayton Carroll (14-0) beat Oak Hill 55-47, beat Lima Bath 57-43, beat Archbishop McNicholas 79-41. Previous: 3

2. Hathaway Brown (9-3) beat Clyde 55-40, beat West Holmes 47-43, beat Walsh Jesuit 71-56. Previous: 5

3. Clyde (14-1) beat Ross 69-42, beat Margaretta 55-36, lost to Hathaway Brown 55-40 beat Sandusky Central Catholic 70-50. Previous: 1

4. Chaminade Julienne (11-2) beat Fairborn 54-51, beat Alter 48-43, beat Purcell Marian 72-41. Previous: 4

5. Toledo Rogers (11-3) beat Waite 63-51, lost to Detroit Country Day (MI) 62-53, lost to Lakota East 51-44, beat Woodward 80-11. Previous: 2

6. Akron Manchester (14-0) beat Tuslaw 81-34, beat Tuscarawas Valley 64-40, beat Triway 60-30. Previous: 6

7. Clinton-Massie (13-1) beat Western Brown 48-22, beat Hillsboro 56-28, beat East Clinton 60-33, beat Greeneview 64-46. Previous: 7

8. Akron Hoban (13-1) beat Ursuline 54-47, lost to Walsh Jesuit 63-44, beat East Tech 77-15, beat Lake Catholic 65-44. Previous: 10

9. Lima Bath (9-2) beat Memorial 51-36, beat Africentric 46-42, lost to Carroll 57-43
beat Van Wert 38-32. Previous: 9

10. West Holmes (12-3) beat Riverview 30-27, beat Lexington 54-34, lost to Northland 50-38, lost to Hathaway Brown 47-43, beat Orrville 69-55. Previous: 8