Kenneth Hay, Contributor
Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
LUCASVILLE — The Division VII District Player of the Year has been dominant all season long.
Saturday’s district final was no different.
From the game’s tip to the final buzzer, it was all about Green’s Abbie Knapp.
Full-court pressure, zone defense, traps, double, and even triple, teams … It did not matter.
The junior scored 46 of her team’s 68 total points in a 68-46 win over Notre Dame in a Division VII district championship game — the Bobcats’ second consecutive district crown.
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
Whether it be flashy drives to the cup, or great footwork down low, everything was falling. But Knapp made sure to credit her teammates for her monstrous performance.
“My teammates are always good at getting me set up because I have teammates that can shoot a basketball,” Knapp said. “So I can get downhill and kick it out to them. They make shots, so [the defense] start going out on them and the lane opens up wide for me.”
Knapp’s 46-point outpouring was obviously a difference-maker. But so was the Bobcats’ ability to control the glass.
Led by Knapp and fellow twin tower Laney Strickland, Green (18-4) was dominant all day long.
“We emphasize, and we’ve had to emphasize [rebounding],” Green coach Melissa Knapp said. “There’s been games where our size advantage did us no good because we were out-rebounded. Its heart and hustle, it’s not just being tall. I’ve had to stay on them. Sometimes, they’re like, ‘Oh, we’re tall.’ But we emphasize it. If we get out rebounded, it’s a problem.”
Knapp and Strickland combined to grab 25 rebounds during the contest — 15 for Knapp and 10 for Strickland.
“We really did well off of missed shots,” Strickland stated. “Rebounding, and like getting the rebound, putting it back up … That’s one thing me and Abbie are both really good at. We just work hard.”
Knapp opened the scoring for the night by splitting a pair of technical free throws to put the Bobcats up 1-0 before the first possession ever happened.
Green sophomore Elizabeth McBee started the in-game action, scoring off a drive to the bucket, extending the Bobcats to 3-0.
Notre Dame’s Sophie Philips would knock down a corner 3 to tie the score at 3-3, but Knapp immediately started to take over from that point forward.
The scored back-to-back baskets, scoring off an offensive rebound and then immediately going coast-to-coast after a steal to put the Bobcats up 7-3
After that flurry, every basket for the Bobcats throughout the rest of the first quarter was scored or assisted on by Knapp. She finished out the quarter with a kickout to teammate Sydney Bainer, who knocked down a triple to make it an 18-8 game.
To start the second, Notre Dame’s Jaysa Bryant hit a pair of free throws to narrow the deficit to 10, but Knapp quickly picked up where left off.
She single-handedly outscored the Titans on a 12-7 run, only broken up by a pair of baskets from Phillips and a runner from Kennedy Lyon, to give Green a 30-17 lead late in the second.
Through the rest of the first half, the teams traded buckets, including Strickland’s first field goal on a nice turnaround jumper, and a drive from McBee to put the Bobcats up 37-24 at the break.
And, despite the efforts of Notre Dame’s Phillps, Bryant and Emma Kingery, the Bobcats flexed their muscles in the third.
Knapp continued to stuff the stat sheet alongside multiple scores from Strickland, including two second-chance field goals, and a pair of baskets from McBee to extend Green’s lead to 55-35 going into the fourth.
The Bobcats smelled blood in the water and they refused to let up with the district trophy all but in their hands.
Bryant put up a fight, scoring eight of the Titans’ 13 points in the fourth but Green’s duo of Knapp and McBee just continued to negate any slim chance of a comeback attempt.
Following Knapp’s totals of 46 points and 15 rebounds was Strickland, a sophomore, who added eight points and five assists alongside her 10 boards en route to the win. McBee also helped out, ending with 11 points.
Bryant, a first-team all-district honoree, led the Titans with 18 points in their season finale.
While Notre Dame’s season comes to a close, the Bobcats will return to action on Thursday at 6:15 p.m. in a Division VII regional semifinal at Logan High School.
They’ll meet with Eastern Meigs, who topped South Gallia to advance.
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