Brock Netter, Editor
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
ZANESVILLE — Midway through Friday’s fourth quarter, there was a point where Addison Edgington — alone — had more points than Indian Creek’s entire roster.
That’s how dominant she was on Friday.
The junior forward only got stronger as the game progressed, finishing the night with 23 points and nine rebounds as she lifted her Tigers (23-4) to a 40-26 victory over Indian Creek in Friday’s Division IV regional final.
“She’s done such a great job of not getting inside of her head, and not letting others get under her skin. Her mental toughness and maturity has grown so much over the season,” Circleville coach Josh Blakeman said. “That was everyone’s game plan, get under her skin and throw her off. We worked on that a lot and just came up with a simple solution: just smile back at them.”
“She’s like a running back. You can get her a couple times early, but as the game continues, she starts to wear on you with her size and strength. Her first half may not be the best, but she comes alive in the second half. When she gets the ball at the free throw line, beats you down hill, and she sees that, it’s game over. She’s so special and I couldn’t be more happy for her.”
The victory marks the first regional title in school history and officially punches the Tigers’ Final 4 ticket.
Let the party in Roundtown begin.
“We’ve had three different coaches throughout the offseason, so we weren’t even ready for our first few games of the season,” Edgington said. “Being in this moment, winning a regional title lets us know that we can do anything and it’s such a great feeling. The past couple games, we’ve somewhat played into the other team’s hands and we weren’t doing that tonight. It took some time, but we came out in the second quarter and dominated for the rest of the night.”
Offense was tough to come by in the first half.
Edgington connected on a pair of shots early, followed by a bucket from Maddie Blakeman to give the Tigers a 6-5 lead after the first quarter.
Indian Creek’s Gracie Wiley connected from distance to give the Redskins (21-6) the lead before Edgington scored on the other end to tie the game.
Edgington later split a pair of free throws and got a shot to fall inside the paint, only for Indian Creek’s Riley Sadler to match the bucket for an 11-10 game.
That back-and-forth trend continued, too.
Circleville’s Mallory McConnell hit an open shot underneath before IC’s Kaydence Walker buried a 3 through contact, and hit the foul shot to complete a four-point play for a 14-13 lead.
The advantage was short-lived, though, as Blakeman connected on a shot and was fouled. Although the ensuing free chance was missed, Edgington corralled the rebound and logged a put back to give the Tigers a 17-14 lead at halftime.
CREDIT: Brock Netter/SOSA
“[Walker] is a really nice player, so we focused a lot on taking away her dribble and drive to the basket since they’re really good about getting into the paint,” Circleville’s Maddie Blakeman said. “We really packed it in with our zone and did a good job keeping them out of the paint to avoid those easy looks at the rim.”
Leading 19-16 in the third, the Tigers slowly began to create some distance between themselves and the Redskins.
Brooklyn Cramer scored a pair of buckets inside, and Edgington followed with the last four points of the frame to push the lead to 27-20 going into the final eight-minute stretch.
“We switched our zone a little bit to take away the 3 since it’s such a big part of today’s game itself, and Indian Creek reminded me a lot of Logan Elm, just with a little more size,” Josh Blakeman said. “That led to a lot more deflections and that created some extra chances. Our deflection game has been elite and if anyone gets by, then the big dog [Edgington] is underneath waiting for you, so good luck.”
Both teams traded buckets to open the fourth, and then it was all Tigers.
Edgington scored, Juliana Sims-Ross came up with a steal and a bucket, and Edgington polished off the night with the next six points to cap a 10-0 run, expanding the lead to 39-21 to virtually put the game on ice.
“I’m so proud of these kids. I’ve been so nervous today, but I think that was just me trying to take some of the nerves away from them because I knew they were ready for this,” Josh Blakeman said. “They had the game plan, knew they had to stop [Walker] and executed so well tonight. The stage is so big, but they played up to it and played better tonight compared to our game against West Holmes.”
“Looking at our lineup, it may look odd at times with three sophomores, but every kid brings something different to the table. Addison is who she is, Maddie does a little bit of everything, getting Brooklyn back has been a huge game-changer, Mallory is such a dawg inside and works so hard, and Juilana brings it defensively. It just works and it got us to Dayton.”
Following Edgington’s mighty performance was Maddie Blakeman, who finished with eight points and six rebounds for the Tigers.
Circleville returns to action at 2 p.m., Thursday in a Division IV state semifinal against the winner of Genoa and Bellevue.
That game will happen at the University of Dayton Arena.
“There’s such a sense of pride. We saw our community come out and give us such great support,” Maddie Blakeman said. “Our student section was incredible, they were loud and brought the energy. I’m so grateful to have this opportunity and so excited to see the big things that we can do.”
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