Badin freshman guard Shelby Nusbaum continued her high-level play with 19 points and seven rebounds Saturday afternoon, earning Player of the Game honors for the Blue squad in an 80-77 win over the Red at the Hamilton Athletic Center.
“Sounds pretty good to me,” Nusbaum said. “When we got up like 15, you could tell we were really working as a team. It was fun because everyone was getting their points and doing what they wanted to do. But the close games are always the most memorable ones. We wanted to win real bad.”
The Blue led by 19 three times in the third quarter before the Red stormed back to take a pair of one-point advantages in the last three minutes.
A layup by Olivia Wells-Daniels (Middletown) gave the Blue a 78-76 edge with 22.4 seconds left. Lauren Gerber (Edgewood) closed the gap to 78-77 on a free throw with 11.5 on the clock, and Emma Wright (Talawanda) added two foul shots for the Blue with 2.7 seconds remaining.
Brooke Spaulding (Fairfield), the Player of the Game for the Red, was off the mark with a desperation heave from about 35 feet away at the buzzer.
“At halftime, we wanted to come back,” said Spaulding, a senior guard who will continue her career at Central State University. “Even though it doesn’t count per se, we still wanted to come out and give the crowd something good to watch.”
Spaulding had 13 points and four boards for the Red. Sarah Jones (Lakota West) collected nine points and five rebounds, Gerber marked eight points and four caroms, and Abby Prohaska (West) and Kelli Bush (Madison) both scored seven points. Bush also grabbed nine boards.
“Even though we didn’t get the W, I had a great time,” Spaulding said. “It was a great feeling playing against players I’ve played against and known for a long time, but it was also about making new connections. It was all-around fun.”
The Blue got 14 points and six rebounds from Wells-Daniels, 13 points and 11 rebounds from Emma Broermann (Badin), 11 points from Wright, and six points and nine caroms from Cici Riggins (Hamilton).
“Great job by Hamilton bringing this event back,” said Edgewood’s Greg Brown, who shared Blue coaching duties with Madison’s Brian McGuire. “I think it should be a mainstay of what we do. It’s an awesome thing for these girls.”
“Basketball is a tough game to play, and at the end of the season, something like this allows them to just have some fun,” McGuire added. “It was fun to see how much talent’s in the county, and it was good to develop a relationship with the girls you’ve played against, like Addie Brown from Talawanda. All I knew about her is that she was a girl from a team we played. Now we’re teasing her about them calling her Andi.”
The coaches didn’t coach players from their own school, and that did create a situation late in the game. Gerber made two free throws with 33.6 seconds left and then was 1 of 2 from the line with 11.5 remaining. Brown called a timeout after her first attempt each time.
“That was to set up the offense and the press break. I didn’t even know who was on the line,” said a grinning Brown, who knew nobody would buy that. “Sometimes you can’t take the coach out of the coach. Even though it’s an all-star game, you see how competitive they got in the last three minutes.”
In Saturday’s pregame competitions, Wright won the 3-point title and Prohaska was the ball handling champion.
New Miami’s Kevin Lakes was one of the Red coaches and said he was honored just to be asked. He has stepped down after four seasons at the NMHS helm.
“This is fantastic,” Lakes said. “I applaud the Hamilton people for getting this back together. It’s good for everybody, especially for schools our size. Our kids don’t normally get recognized on this big of a stage. It’s a wonderful opportunity for them.”
The 57-year-old Lakes has been a head coach with the New Miami boys (five years) and the Miami University Hamilton men (three years). He said it’s simply time for him to step aside.
“I picked these girls up in the eighth grade and said all along that I’m going to finish with them,” Lakes said. “It’s evolved into pretty much a year-round thing, and I don’t want to shortchange kids. I just don’t know that I have the passion to bring it every day like you need to. It’s time for somebody a little younger to take over.
“I will certainly miss the girls that I’ve had the last five years. That’s very emotional. They have done a good job of creating a program where there really wasn’t one, and that’s a hard thing to do. There was basically nothing there when they came in the ninth grade, and we won 29 basketball games the last two years. More than that, they’re great kids. We’ve developed quite a bond, and I’ll certainly be sad to see them go.”
If he’s asked, Lakes said he may help on a part-time basis with the Viking boys or girls. With Dave Farrish resigning from the boys post, both programs are seeking a head coach.
Blue 17-23-20-20—80
Red 15-13-27-22—77
BLUE (80): Shelby Nusbaum 5 6 19 (seven rebounds), Alyssa Robinette 1 0 2 (four rebounds), Emma Wright 2 6 11 (three rebounds), Addie Brown 2 1 5 (three rebounds), Allison Rapier 0 0 0 (two rebounds), Aubriana Bellard 0 1 1 (five rebounds), DeSuela Rodriguez 0 0 0 (four rebounds), Cici Riggins 2 2 6 (nine rebounds), Kayla Arington 1 0 3 (one rebound), Olivia Wells-Daniels 7 0 14 (six rebounds), Monique Prather 3 0 6 (four rebounds), Emma Broermann 5 3 13 (11 rebounds). Totals: 28-19-80 (59 rebounds)
RED (77): Lauren Gerber 2 3 8 (four rebounds), Kaylee Schulte 0 1 1 (no rebounds), Sophie Sloneker 2 2 6 (one rebound), Sarah Jones 4 0 9 (five rebounds), Cierra Lipps 2 0 6 (no rebounds), Hannah Randall 1 3 5 (three rebounds), Brooke Spaulding 5 1 13 (four rebounds), Kaitlyn Anzel 2 0 4 (seven rebounds), Grace Edmonston 2 0 4 (six rebounds), Abby Prohaska 3 0 7 (two rebounds), Kelli Bush 1 5 7 (nine rebounds), Haylee Harmon 1 0 2 (two rebounds), Kennedy Roberts-Rosser 0 0 0 (eight rebounds) Katie Sloneker 2 0 5 (two rebounds). Totals: 27-15-77 (53 rebounds)
3-pointers: B 5 (Nusbaum 3, Wright, Arington), R 8 (Lipps 2, Spaulding 2, Gerber, Jones, Prohaska, K. Sloneker)
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