Archbishop Hoban, Medina advance to district final in Ohio girls basketball

Archbishop Hoban and Medina will face off on Friday, March 1 for a spot in the regional tournament

RAVENNA, Ohio - OHSAA Division I girls basketball district play began Tuesday night with district semifinals in the six Northeast Ohio districts.

At Ravenna, it was Archbishop Hoban defeating Ellet 86-38 and Medina beating Hudson 71-38. The two teams will face each other in the district final on Friday night at Ravenna High School at 7:00 pm for a spot in the regional semifinals.

Archbishop Hoban 86, Ellet 38

After a highly competitive game between these two teams ended with Hoban winning 49-45 in the regular season, the Knights made sure early on Tuesday night who would be the final team from Akron standing in Division I.

Hoban jumped out to a 14-0 lead midway through the first quarter and led 23-8 after eight minutes and eventually taking a 47-23 lead into the half.

Sophomore guard Niera "Zig" Stevens led the charge in that first quarter, as she scored 13 of her game-high 28 points in the quarter, including eight of the first 10 for Hoban.

"Coming out, we were moving pretty strong and we were focusing on having a strong start," Stevens said. "(We wanted to) get our defense on track early so we could run the whole game and keep the pace up. We just wanted to control the pace. Coming out, we had to have that run."

That defense was turned up from the jump for the Knights, including on out of bounds plays after a made basket as Hoban was focused on not allowing Ellet's Caitlyn Holmes to get the ball. That meant guarding the inbounds passer or double-teaming Holmes on the inbounds pass.

"That was by design because we knew all the offense pretty much goes through her with (Sanaiiya) Gray being her complimentary partner," Hoban head coach Pam Davis said. "They want the ball in (Holmes') hands to make either shots or to make the decisions. We wanted to make it is difficult as possible and we didn't want her to have any early success."

Holmes, who had 26 points and knocked down four 3-pointers in the earlier contest against Hoban, didn't score until 1:50 left in the first quarter on Tuesday. She finished the game with 14 points, while Gray led the Orangemen with 18 points. 

Meanwhile, Hoban had four players in double figures, as Stevens was joined by Zoey Hodge (18 points), Mackenzie Edingburgh (17 points) and MaKenzie Grant (11 points). 

"We know what a spark plug Holmes and Gray can be, but I have a few spark plugs of my own," Davis said. "I knew that if we took the starch out of them that they didn't really have the depth on their bench like I feel that I have." 

The Knights drew off their shortcomings from the earlier game against Ellet and that game was on their minds all week.

"Every single minute of every single practice," Davis said. "Once we found out we were heading to the semifinals and they were as well, we put a lot of work on film study, really looking at some of our weaknesses we had last time and what we needed to do to fix those."

As for playing Ellet again, the game was set up because Ellet head coach Nick Harris selected to be in the same district as Hoban on selection day instead of one of the other five districts in Northeast Ohio. When asked if the Knights took that personally, Davis smiled. 

"All is fair in love and competition," Davis said. "Could they have gone anywhere? Perhaps. They didn't. And I think probably he wanted to be close to home and stir up that East Akron rivalry. Our philosophy is whoever is in front of us to get to where we need to go and it just happened to be Ellet tonight."  

Medina's Olivia Klanac drives for a basket against Hudson in the OHSAA district semifinals on February 27, 2024 / Jeff Harwell, SBLive Sports

Medina 71, Hudson 38

Just like Hoban in the earlier game, Medina got off to a hot start, scoring the game's first 10 points and the Bees rolled out to a 21-6 lead after one quarter.

"It was a key, we really wanted to come out with energy and enthusiasm and defensive intensity to help set the tone," Medina head coach Karen Kase said. "That's part of who we are as a team, all year round, not just at tournaments."  

But with Medina leading 31-12 late in the second quarter, Hudson went on a 7-0 run to end the half with all seven points scored by Sienna Pinson.

The head coach let her team know in no uncertain terms that the final possessions of the half weren't acceptable. 

"I can't repeat what I said because the last two minutes of the half by Medina were not good," Kase said. "More creative than that is what I said but that's the gist of it."

The main problem with those two minutes was the defensive effort by the Bees. 

"Defensively, we stopped getting deflections and steals and we let them start playing their offense," Medina senior Izzy Kurka said. "At halftime, coach said we are Medina girls basketball, lock down on defense and pick it up. And we knew we weren't going to back down from a challenge."

Medina came out in the second half focused back on defense and went on a 12-6 run to open the lead back up to 18. After Hudson scored five quick points to cut it to 13, Olivia Klanac and Addy Shook knocked down 3-pointers to give the Bees a 19-point advantage after three quarters.

Then the Bees put it out of reach early in the fourth quarter on back-to-back and-1's by Kurka, who scored 12 points. The second gave Medina a 55-33 lead.

"She knew she wanted to do something and those were the two things back-to-back," Kase said. "It was exciting. Big plays."

Klanac led a balanced scoring attack for the Bees with 19 points, including two of the game's first six. 

"Liv is one of the best players in Northeast Ohio, all-around, not just scoring," Kase said. "She is hounded and face-guarded all game but she is more patient this year, lets it come to her, gets it done in other ways." 

Molly Gilbert scored 10 for Medina, Addy Shook added nine and Sylvie Hipp had eight. Hailey Johnson and Abby Dress each chipped in with five points and Kylie O'Cull dialed it up from long range for her three points.

Paige Sutton led Hudson with 10 points.

This is the deepest the current group of Medina players has made it in the tournament, as the Bees lost in the district semifinals the last two seasons and last won a district tile in 2021.

"The group we are with right now, none of us have made it to district finals and we are just excited with where we are at and we are ready to keep moving," Klanac said. "It's more not what we haven't done but what we can do." 

-- Ryan Isley | ryan@scorebooklive.com | @sbliveoh

Ohio girls high school basketball district tournament brackets, pairings (02/25/2024)