Annarino, Granville finally deal knockout blow to tenacious Hartley
COLUMBUS ― In a game that Granville coach Tate Moore called “a fistfight,” it was actually Harper Annarino’s soft touch that delivered the Blue Aces a third consecutive Division II girls district championship on Saturday.
The junior post player turned a perfect lob from the wing by senior Ava Gossman into a game-winning hook shot at the buzzer, the ball bouncing up and over the rim and falling back through, giving top-seeded Granville a pulsating 42-40 win over Bishop Hartley, an underrated sixth seed, at Capital University.
“Ava made a great pass, and it felt good leaving my hand,” said Annarino, held to just two field goals and eight points, 10 under her average, by the athletic, aggressive Hawks (10-15 against a rugged schedule). “It was supposed to go to the other side, but Harper is such a beast in there, she buried the girl and got to her spot,” said Gossman, who led the Blue Aces (24-2) with 17 points. They’ll face John Glenn (19-8), which rallied for a 67-60 overtime win against West Holmes, at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the regional semifinals at Zanesville High School.
Hartley got a stellar 21-point performance from senior guard Kiki McElrath, a key component on last year’s state semifinal team, including 16 in the second half. She drilled four 3s, including a 25-footer from the left wing with 35 seconds left for a 40-40 tie. The Blue Aces took a timeout, then another with 10 seconds to set up the winning play.
“We’ve had it in our pocket all year, if we needed a last-second shot,” Moore said. “But that’s the first time we had actually used it in three years, because we weren’t in that situation. We were confident Harper would either make it, or get to the line. I can’t believe she (McElrath) made that shot. It was a fistfight. We would throw a punch, and they would punch back. We were able to finally deliver the knockout.”
With the Hawks locking down Annarino, Gossman and gritty senior point guard Ella Schneider, who scored a career-high 10 points, came through. Hartley rallied from a 30-22 deficit late in the third quarter, after Annarino hit Gossman for a layup, then sank two technical free throws, to take a 37-36 lead with 3:15 left when sophomore Anaya Bumpus banked in her third 3 of the game. But Schneider, who earlier drove the baseline for a layup, made four of five foul shots to push the winners ahead 40-37. She handled the ball against Hartley’s pressure defense the entire game.
“Ella usually has one job, to take care of the ball and make her foul shots, but today, she also had to score,” Gossman said. “Harper does a lot of things for us, but with the way things were going, the entire team had the mindset that we need to help her out. I had to step up and do a lot of things I don’t normally do, like getting into the lane.”
“They shut down Harper, so some other people had to step up,” said Schneider, who also scrapped for eight rebounds. “Normally, I don’t take many shots and try to get it to Harper, but today someone else had to be a scoring threat.”
Annarino was very appreciative, but has seen it happen all season.
“We have weapons all around, and when they take one person out of the game, we stay together and other people step up,” she said. “When we aren’t making shots, we have to play with heart.”
With Granville using its length in its 1-3-1 zone, and the Hawks using their quickness to force turnovers, shots were hard to come by on Saturday. The Blue Aces were just 14-of-41 from the field for 34 percent, and Hartley went 16-of-45 for 35 percent.
Gossman kept Granville afloat in the first quarter with eight points, including a pair of 3s, and the Blue Aces edged into a 14-9 second-quarter lead that grew to 17-10 with 30 seconds left in the half. But McElrath, held to just one point, hit a shot from the lane, then stole the inbounds pass and scored, suddenly making it 17-14. Hartley forced five second-quarter turnovers.
“We did expect the pressure, and we even brought our boys in during practice,” Schneider said. “But seeing it in the game is totally different.”
McElrath carried her momentum into the second half with an 11-point third quarter, and nearly carried her team to victory. “She’s the best player in the area for a reason,” said Hartley assistant coach Wade Brockwell, filling in for head coach Donald Dennis, who was out of state.
“We did a great job on her in the first half. Then she made those two quick shots on us. She’s a great player, and once she gets going, she keeps going,” Moore said. “We knew she would keep shooting,” said Annarino.
Hartley held a 30-29 edge on the boards, but made just 1-of-6 free throws, while Granville was hitting 10-of-16 for 62 percent. Taylor Warehime grabbed eight rebounds and had three steals for the Blue Aces, and Gossman had six rebounds and three assists.
Like Granville, Hartley was going for its third straight regional berth. It would have been Brockwell’s ninth district title, as he also coached at Bexley and Pickerington Central. He liked his…
Read More: Annarino, Granville finally deal knockout blow to tenacious Hartley