Edgewood girls top Talawanda 31-28 in defensive battle

Defense ruled the night as Edgewood High School’s girls basketball team took sole possession of first place in the Southwest Ohio Conference on Wednesday.

The Cougars overcame poor shooting, including a 1-of-9 performance at the charity stripe, and knocked off host Talawanda 31-28.

“It was crazy. My heart is still beating,” said Edgewood senior guard Jessa Brown, who came off the bench and led all scorers with 10 points.

“It was all defense. We couldn’t make a lot of shots, but our defense helped us a lot, and we played good enough.”

Sara Schaefer and Cierra Lipps had six points and four rebounds apiece for the Cougars, and Schaefer made a strong defensive showing against THS standout Emma Wright.

Lauren Gerber contributed four points, six boards and five assists for Edgewood.

“Good thing for defense,” Cougars coach Greg Brown said. “I thought we did a good job on the boards, but neither team could shoot, and we both played good defense.

“We talk about the fact that things are not going to go right in a game, and it’s got to be about the next possession. What are you going to do on the next play? We had a lot of possessions tonight where if we would’ve hung our heads, we’d be in trouble. But we went back and played defense. Give it to these kids. They’re resilient and work hard.”

Katlynn Woodruff and Wright each scored eight points for the Braves, and Wright had four assists and four rebounds. Woodruff grabbed 11 boards, while teammate Addie Brown collected eight.

Edgewood is 9-1 overall and 3-0 in the SWOC. Talawanda, which has won or shared every title since the conference began competition in 2012-13, is 7-3, 3-1.

“I thought my players left it all on the floor. None of them cheated me with their effort,” Braves coach Tom Head said. “We just had a really bad shooting night. We were way below our averages in every category. We were 4-for-17 from 3. Our girls are better than that.

“That entire second half, there were maybe two shots we took that I disagreed with. Other than that, they were running our offense and rotating to the right shot. They just weren’t falling for us. You can’t beat a kid up for that. We could’ve boxed out a little better in the first half, but I thought we sat down and played defense really well.”

Talawanda shot 28.6 percent from the floor and made 4 of 8 free throws. The Cougars shot 32.5 percent from the floor and were 1 of 5 from the line in the last 23.6 seconds.

Edgewood forged a 30-25 lead on a Schaefer layup with 2:46 left. Its last point came on a Kayla Curtis free throw with 6.4 on the clock, and the Braves’ Wright was off the mark with a long, desperation 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Jessa Brown sank 4 of 5 field goals and added three rebounds, three assists and two steals.

“We just needed energy and I had that, so I gave it to them,” she said. “I’m fine with coming off the bench. I kind of like it because I get to see how the game is going and what we need to work on and what I can do to help.”

“When you accept your role and understand what that means, it shows. There was a prime example,” Greg Brown said. “There was a girl that doesn’t start, but she enjoys coming off the bench and watches the game and gets in the flow and knows what she can do. She was a spark today. She picked up when people were down. She just needs to have a little more confidence in herself that she can do this all the time.”

He had no explanation for Edgewood’s free-throw woes. The eight misses were spread over five players.

“We work so hard on that,” Brown said. “We put them in pressure situations in practice, and we still can’t make ’em in a game.”

The Cougars are in the driver’s seat in the SWOC, yet a lot of season remains. It looks to be a four-team race between Edgewood, Talawanda, Little Miami (4-1) and Northwest (2-1).

“I like the feeling of everyone wanting to beat us because that just means we have to play that much better,” Jessa Brown said. “We can do a lot more than people think we can do. If our heart and our brain can connect, we’re good.”

Both teams will play on the road Saturday afternoon, the Braves vs. Northwest and the Cougars vs. Little Miami.

Edgewood 7-7-9-8—31

Talawanda 6-6-8-8—28

EDGEWOOD (9-1, 3-0 SWOC): Jessa Brown 4 0 10, Lauren Gerber 2 0 4, Kayla Curtis 2 1 5, Cierra Lipps 2 0 6, Sara Schaefer 3 0 6. Totals: 13-1-31

TALAWANDA (7-3, 3-1 SWOC): Emma Wright 2 2 8, Gabby Lindley 1 2 5, Addie Brown 2 0 4, Katlynn Woodruff 4 0 8, Hannah Hurst 1 0 3. Totals: 10-4-28

3-pointers: E 4 (Brown 2, Lipps 2), T 4 (Wright 2, Lindley, Hurst)

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