Girls basketball: Unbeaten Mason rolls Lakota West to reach district finals

Kyla Oldacre scored 18 points and grabbed 11 rebounds and Margo Mattes added 16 points as the undefeated and second-seeded Comets flattened Lakota West, 55-25, in a Division I district semifinal at Lakota East.

“We fell short in every way,” Fishman said after the game. “In the first half, I don’t think we defended well. That plus we couldn’t throw the ball in the ocean. We broke continuity.”

Lakota West (20-5) leading Greater Miami Conference teams with an average of 59.8 points per game and ranked second behind Mason with a combined 43.8 field-goal percentage, but the Firebirds shot just 20 percent (9-of-45) against an active Comets’ defense.

“They didn’t pressure us,” Fishman said. “We got some good looks. They played better team defense. They played longer into possessions.”

Particularly bothered was Chance Gray, the Lakota West sophomore who went into the game leading the conference with an average of 25.7 points per game. The 5-foot-9 junior finished with seven points while going 3-for-20 overall, including 0-for-12 on 3-pointers, part of the Firebirds’ 1-for-24 night.

“She’s a wonderful player – probably the best player in our conference – and a great teammate,” Mason coach Rob Matula said. “She gets her teammates involved. When we played at our place, she dropped eight (3-pointers) on us. Our girls did a good job of executing the game plan. We fought over screens and made it tough on her, and when she did get shots, we contested them.”

“She certainly got some good looks,” Fishman said.

Lakota West also committed 16 turnovers, twice as many as Mason, which went 17-of-19 on free throws.

Mason (19-0), ranked third in the final Associated Press Division I statewide poll, will play in a Saturday district championship game against Springboro.

The Comets went into Monday’s game with a 6-5 lead over Lakota West over the last 11 games in the series. Mason had won the last three tournament games between the two teams.

The first half was remarkably similar to the first half of the last game between the two teams, a 59-50 Mason win at Lakota West on Jan. 23. In that game, the Firebirds went 1-for-12 from the field in the first quarter and 3-for-22 in the first half, helping the Comets build a 25-12 halftime lead.

Monday, Lakota West missed its first five shots from the field and finished the first half 4-for-23 as Mason took a 20-9 lead. Oldacre scored Mason’s first eight points before sitting down after drawing her second foul. The 6-foot-6 junior had 12 in the first half, which ended with Mason senior forward Marilyn Popplewell-Garter’s acrobatic tip-in at the buzzer.

“I told Oldacre that that was the most dominant I’d ever seen her, in spurts,” Matula said. “She set the tone.”

Oldacre picked up her second foul with 2:15 left in the first quarter and didn’t return until there was 6:01 left in the second quarter. When she did, Matula deployed a box-and-one defense with Gray tracked man-to-man and the rest of the team in a zone to help protect Oldacre.

“When their other shooter (Leah Abribat) was out, we felt like we could use the box-and-one and make the other kids shoot, and that’s what happened,” he said.