Lady Lancers rally past Ayersville

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

DEFIANCE — Adia Welch scored 22 points and No. 8 seed Lincolnview rallied from an eight point halftime deficit, then held on to defeat No. 7 seed Ayersville 36-33 in the Division IV sectional semifinals at Defiance High School on Wednesday.

The victory means the Lady Lancers (8-15) will play No. 4 seed Delphos St. John’s for the sectional championship on Saturday.

Trailing 23-15 to start the third quarter, Lincolnview opened with a 9-0 run, including seven points by Welch. Ayersville’s Ashlee Tressler answered with a basket and a pair of foul shots to give the Pilots a 27-24 lead, but a trey by Welch tied the game 27-27. The 5-6 senior guard, who scored 12 points in the quarter tied the game 29-29 with 45 seconds left in the period.

“She’s playing with a ton of confidence right now,” head coach Dan Williamson said of Welch. “We talked in the third and fourth quarters about ways to get her some shots and the girls responded to that.”

The fourth quarter was a struggle offensively, as each team scored just one basket. Ayersville (10-13) hit a pair of free throws, while Lincolnview went 5 of 12 from the foul line in the quarter. Sierra Adams and Annie Mendenhall each blocked late three point attempts by Ayersville to help secure the win.

“We held them to 10 points in the second half and that’s the reason we won,” Williamson said. “We struggled offensively and we struggled from the free throw line, but our defense is really what won it for us tonight.”

Lincolnview opened the game with an 8-2 lead, with six of those points coming from Welch. With an 8-5 advantage to start the second quarter, Welch and Mendenhall each drilled three pointers to put the Lady Lancers up 14-5.

However, Ayersville outscored Lincolnview 18-1 during the remainder of the quarter, including eight points by Felicity Eichler and six points by Alexis Samlow. Eichler finished with a team high 10 points, all scored in the first half.

“Our offense went to sleep a little bit and their offense really woke up,” Williamson said. “The three point shooting was amazing for Ayersville – we had them 5 for 7 in the first half and we didn’t expect that.”

“We had scouted four or five of their games and their perimeter shooting was something we felt would not really hurt us,” Williamson added.

Ayersville finished the game 5 of 10 from three point range and 12 of 33 overall from the floor, to go along with 4 of 6 from the foul line.

Lincolnview was 4 of 10 from beyond the arc, 13 of 38 from the floor and 6 of 16 from the free throw line. The Lady Lancers finished with a 25-23 rebounding advantange, with Lakin Brant pulling down six, Adams five and Brianna Ebel four.

The Lady Lancers will return to Defiance to play Delphos St. John’s (14-7) for the sectional title at 1 p.m. on Saturday. The two teams met on January 29, with the Blue Jays winning 61-42.

“They’re obviously a good team,” Williamson said. “They like to spread the ball out and they can shoot the ball very well. In our game earlier in the year they shot 60 percent.”

The winner of Saturday’s game will advance to next week’s district semfinals at Van Wert High School.

Scoring summary

Ayersville 5 18 6 4 – 33
Lincolnview 8 7 14 7 – 36

Ayersville: Fecility Eichler 4-0-10; Alexis Samlow 2-0-6; Kryshel Dales 0-1-1; Ashlee Tressler 3-3-9; Maci Froelich 3-0-7

Lincolnview: Lana Carey 0-1-1; Adia Welch 9-1-22; Sierra Adams 1-1-3; Lakin Brant 0-1-1; Annie Mendenhall 1-1-4; Brianna Ebel 2-1-5