Carson Francis, Contributor
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
NELSONVILLE — There’s a new team at the top of the Tri-Valley Conference.
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
When Athens and Nelsonville-York met on Thursday with both teams tied at the top of the TVC-Ohio standings, the Buckeyes had one thing on their mind: revenge.
On Dec. 15, the Bulldogs had handed Nelsonville a 50-43 loss. A little over a month later, the Buckeyes avenged that decision with a 45-41 victory — allowing themselves to slide into sole possession of first place in the league title race.
“The girls had revenge on their minds after going into [Athens’] place and playing horrible,” Nelsonville-York head coach Mark Truax said. “We made some adjustments and settled the kids down a little bit and played the way we should in the second half.”
The final score is not a reflection of how the game started, however.
In the opening quarter, Athens (11-8, 8-2 TVC-Ohio) was firing on all cylinders and that started with a 3 from Ella Chapman. Chapman put up six in the opening quarter and helped the Bulldogs take a 15-2 lead into the second quarter.
But while Athens was able to maintain the lead throughout the entire first half, momentum slowly shifted into the Buckeyes’ favor.
While neither team found much scoring success in the second, Nelsonville-York stepped up its game defensively and held Athens to just two points. And, the more the Buckeyes earned defensive stops, the more opportunities they had to capitalize on the other end.
That was the case on the final play of the first half when junior Kyleigh McWilliams knocked one down from long range as time expired. That cut the Bulldogs’ lead to just 17-13 at the break.
“Kyleigh [McWilliams] hitting that 3 for us at the end of the second quarter turned the tide for us,” Truax said. “We were lively in the locker room at half but we knew we had to play better and execute our offense”.
No Buckeye had a better turnaround than Airah Lavy.
After being held to just two points and shooting 0-for-11 in the first half, Lavy flipped a switch in the third. With the Buckeyes down 21-18 early, Nelsonville-York embarked on a 12-2 run to finish the quarter with Lavy and Emma Fields scoring nine of the team’s 12. That aided NY to a 30-23 advantage heading to the fourth.
“I know I can get down on myself sometimes,” Lavy said after the game. “But we talked about attitudes, sharing the ball, and defense. We would not have won that game without our defense.”
Athens was far from finished fighting.
But whenever the Bulldogs tried to mount a comeback attempt, Lavy had an answer.
Athens cut the lead to just three points on two separate occasions, only to see Lavy knock down back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Buckeyes a 38-32 lead with 3:50 left.
Lavy scored 11 points in the final eight minutes and finished the game with 18.
The Bulldogs had opportunities late in the game and in the final seconds, found themselves once again trailing by three.
Obviously, they had to foul, and they chose to send Fields to the line with just 1.8 seconds left, hoping for a miracle.
Fields’ first attempt was no good, but then the senior decided that there would be no miracle. She sank her second shot to put the win on ice and catapult her Buckeyes into first place.
“As a senior, playing for the TVC title is something I’ve always really wanted,” Fields said after the game. “I just feel like this year we’ve put in so much hard work and you can really see it in the way we play.”
After Lavy’s team-high 18 points — 16 of which came in the second half — was Fields with nine of her own alongside seven rebounds.
For Athens, Ella Chapman and Olivia Smart both led the team with 11 points apiece.
“We’ve got goals in place to accomplish big things this year and we have to keep grinding each night,” Truax said about a potential league title for his team. The season is definitely not over. We’ve got two more league games. We didn’t win the championship tonight by any means.”
Now sitting atop the league standings, the Buckeyes will face Warren on Saturday before returning to league play against River Valley on Monday — where a win clinches a share of the title.
Meanwhile, Athens will host Chillicothe on Saturday before also returning to league play Monday with a trip to Alexander.
“I think we have to keep our momentum up,” Lavy said. “We’re on a really good stretch right now. We’re a great team all-around and we just have to use each other.”
BOX SCORE
Athens: 15-2-6-18 — 41
Nelsonville-York: 2-11-17-15 — 45
Athens scoring: Chapman 11, Smart 11, Holcombe 8, Banks 7, Sigmen 3, Zuber 1.
Nelsonville-York scoring: Lavy 18, Fields 9, Richards 7, Dupler 6, McWilliams 3, Hernandez 2.
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