Kenneth Hay, Contributor
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
LUCASVILLE — After a huge offensive surge in the first half, Eastern Meigs only scored 11 points in Saturday’s second half.
But if the Eagles showed one thing on the floor, it was grit.
Through controlling the glass, heavy defensive pressure, and ball control, Eastern Meigs pulled out a 44-35 win over South Gallia in a Division VII district championship contest at Valley High School — despite the offensive drought in the third and fourth quarters.
“It’s just a good feeling because, you know, we’re finding ways to win when the ball’s not going in. We’re just trying to prepare ourselves.” Eastern coach Hayden Plummer. “We needed a game like this. We shot it well all season, so now we’ve got another win under our belt with a different way of playing.”
CREDIT: Brock Netter/SOSA
The tap wasn’t dry the whole game for the Eagles (18-5) as they scored 33 of their 44 points in the first two frames.
The story of that first half was freshman Emeri Lloyd.
The 5-foot-10 guard hit four triples in the first half alone.
“She’s come a long way from the start of the season. I’m super proud of her,” Plummer said of Lloyd. “But you know, we’ve had a lot of close games this year and a lot of intense games. So that really helped us for this moment, and I think she stepped up.”
Lloyd’s scoring surge, on top of big contributions from Makenzie Robertson and Braelyn Simpson, gave Eastern the lead it fought so hard to protect in the backhalf.
And the team’s defensive pressure was felt immediately after the tip.
Following the opening basket from South Galia’s Ryleigh Shafer, Eastern immediately responded with back-to-back baskets, via an Ashlynn Thomas midrange jumper and an Emeri Lloyd catch-and-shoot 3 to force a Rebel timeout.
Both teams would go back and forth until a takeaway and score from Kyrstin Fackler sparked a 7-0 run for the Eagles to put them ahead 18-8 after the first quarter.
The Rebels (18-7), who continued to fight all afternoon, ripped off a 6-2 run to start the second as senior Jacie Booth hit a jumper, followed by back-to-back baskets from Olivia Clary, cutting the lead to seven.
Both teams then traded buckets before SG’s Gracyn Creemens drove and finished off the glass, but Eastern took a comfortable 33-21 lead into the break.
The script would completely flip in the second half, though.
As Eastern continued to create defensive pressure, the Rebels also tightened their zone defense as both teams struggled to find the bottom of the net.
In the first 30 seconds of the third, the Eagles and Rebels went score-for-score with a basket from Emeri Lloyd and Shayden Hammond, respectively.
From then on, both teams went on lengthy scoring droughts.
In fact, the only other score of the quarter was a basket from Hammond at the very end of the frame, making it a 35-26 tally heading to the final eight minutes.
In the fourth, South Gallia fought, but with superb ball movement and a heightened sense of patience, the Eagles won the possession battle and were able to drain time off the clock late — over two minutes to be exact, a stretch that was capped by a score from Fackler — to put away a nine-point victory.
“I think we can go as far as we push ourselves to go,” Simpson said. “As our coaches have said, we have a lot of potential. We just have to play like we have a lot of potential. So hopefully, in our game at Logan, we come out strong and stay strong through the entire game.”
Eastern was led by Lloyd, who had 14 points while Simpson ended with 12 of her own alongside 11 rebounds.
While South Gallia’s season comes to a close, the Eagles advance to a Division VII regional semifinal at 8 p.m., Thursday at Logan High School.
They’ll meet with Franklin Furnace Green, who beat Notre Dame to advance.
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