Kalida girls end Lincolnview’s season

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

KALIDA — Unfortunately for Lincolnview, it wasn’t a good combination. The Lady Lancers started slow and were plagued by turnovers and foul trouble. Meanwhile, No. 3 seed Kalida put together an early run and kept on going, on the way to a 57-24 Division IV sectional championship win at Richard L. Kortokrax Court on Saturday. The loss ended No. 5 seed Lincolnview’s season at 13-11.

Kalida harassed the visitors into eight first quarter turnovers and used an 11-0 run to sprint out to a 17-8 lead, with Averie Unverferth accounting for six straight points during the run. In addition, Keira Breese, Lincolnview’s leading scorer, was saddled with two fouls in the opening period.

“Keira does a fantastic job handling the ball for us so her not being in there hurt us,” Lincolnview head coach Kyle Williamson said. “Adam (Huber) is a good coach and he flipped the switch defensively and it was just hard for us to overcome that. We just couldn’t battle through that but I’m super proud of our girls throughout the season.”

Breese and freshman Brooklyn Byrne accounted for all eight of Lincolnview’s first quarter points. Byrne went on to lead the Lady Lancers with eight points.

Any hopes of a Lincolnview rally were dashed in the second quarter, as Kalida’s Andrea Burgei connected on three treys, enough to help push the lead to 31-17 by halftime. Emerson Walker hit a triple and connected on a pair of foul shots in the second period. She went on to finish with seven points.

“It was nice to see Andrea hit some shots in the second quarter to push the lead out before half and I think that really settled our team in for the second half,” Kalida head coach Adam Huber said.

Kalida outscored the Lady Lancers 26-7 in the second half. Lincolnview was held to a single basket in the final two quarters and converted 5-of-8 free throws in the second half.

“We were really proud of the way we locked into our scouting report on defense,” Huber said. “We know Lincolnview has girls that can score but we were able to make it tough on them, especially in the second half.

The Ladycats were 20-of-41 from the floor and 16-of-22 from the foul line with 21 rebounds and eight turnovers. Lincolnview was 8-of-30 shooting, including just 1-of-9 from three point range, 7-of-9 from the free throw line with 17 rebounds and 20 turnovers.

“We talk about it all the time,” Williams said. “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes you learn and we need to learn and grow…they beat us. Adam’s a great coach and a great leader for their program and they have a bunch of great players, but we’ll be back and ready to go for next year. I think the girls know what’s to come and how to get better.”

Lincolnview loses just one senior, 5-8 senior guard/forward Addysen Stevens, who averaged 8.3 points per game this season.

“Addy’s done a great job being a leader,” Williams said of his lone senior. “It stinks to lose her but we start two sophomores, two sophomores and we have two freshmen who played a lot of the time along with some JV players that we can mix in so hopefully we can be a little bit deeper and keep growing.”

Kalida (17-6) will face No. 2 seed Columbus Grove in the district semifinals at Miller City at 7:30 Thursday night. Before that, at 6 p.m., No. 1 seed Ottoville will take on No. 4 seed Miller City.

Box score

Ladycats 17 14 13 13 – 57
Lancers 8 9 4 3 – 24

Kalida: Andrea Burgei 5-3-16; Whitney Unverferth 2-0-4; Madison Unverferth 0-1-1; Claire Nartker 1-0-2; Allie Kuhlman 1-0-2; Avrie Unverferth 6-5-11; Ady Miller 1-2-4; Meredith Bockrath 2-3-7; Addilyn Huber 4-0-8; Malia Romes 0-2-2

Lincolnview: Ashlyn Price 0-2-2; Keira Breese 2-1-5; Emerson Walker 2-2-7; Brooklyn Byrne 3-2-8; Ella Elling 1-0-2