Lebanon’s second loss came Saturday afternoon in the Queen City Classic, with Mariemont earning a 59-45 victory in the girls basketball showcase event at Lakota West.
“We have high expectations, and this doesn’t necessarily hurt our expectations,” Lebanon coach Rob Hodges said. “It just gives us a little more motivation as we look forward to playing our next game.
“We bring a lot of experience back, but forming as a team absolutely takes time, and we are doing all the right things to make it that way. Once we get complete, we can start to get the momentum moving forward.”
Alex Warning paced Lebanon’s balanced attack with 12 points. Rachael Sweetman had 10, Ali Russell nine and Rachel Perry eight.
LHS played without 6-foot senior Jenna Bour, who rolled her ankle in practice Friday, and sophomore guard Alexis Straw, who’s out with a knee injury.
“With Jenna injured, I think we were a little unsure of what was going to happen,” said Warning, a junior guard who marked eight rebounds and three assists. “We went out there hard, but that was a good team. It’s really hard to defend against a team that can do all those different things.
“It’s discouraging,” she added of being 1-2. “But we have a lot of seniors on this team. We can still get things going and have a good run in the tournament.”
Mariemont (3-0) only trailed twice (8-7 and 11-10). Lebanon had a hard time keeping 5-10 senior Aislynn Hartman away from the basket — she totaled 19 points and 10 rebounds.
Ashley Rothert and Hannah Krieger both scored nine points for the victorious Warriors, and Carson Fields had eight. Rebekah Justice, a 6-4 junior, grabbed 12 boards and showed a nice shooting touch on her six points.
“We’ve got a nice squad, a lot of kids that can hurt you,” Mariemont coach John Weilbacher said. “I thought we came out and played a little nervous at first. I wouldn’t say it was a great game, but it was a good game.”
Mariemont was up 23-11 in the second quarter and seemed to be on the verge of blowing the contest wide open, but Lebanon responded.
LHS roared all the way back to tie the game twice, the last time (36-36) on a Sweetman stickback with 1:55 left in the third quarter. Mariemont then ripped off the next 11 points.
“We got three or four stops in a row, which was key to that, and we made our free throws,” Weilbacher said. “We showed some resiliency.”
Said Warning, “We just weren’t hitting our shots, and once they started going on a run, we kind of let that take control of how we played.”
Lebanon committed 23 turnovers, shot 34 percent from the floor and made 7 of 14 free throws. Mariemont was 21 of 27 at the foul line and turned the ball over 20 times.
“I think Mariemont is a way-above-average team,” Hodges said. “They’ve got a number of seniors, and that shows me they’ve got a lot of girls that have played together for a long time. That allows them to function as a team pretty seamlessly when they get on the court.
“Believe it or not, we played a little bit better than what we have played. Scoring has escaped us early in the season, so we’ve been focusing a lot in practice on attacking. We did a better job with that today.”
Maygan Boettcher (eight) and Russell (seven) were among Lebanon’s leading rebounders. Perry and Ashley West both had three steals.
Mariemont, which visits Taylor on Wednesday, has moved up to Division II this season.
“They moved us up by one girl,” Weilbacher said with a smile. “This is the year we’ve been building for. If we stay healthy, we’ve got the pieces to make a little run.”
Lebanon will be at home against Trotwood-Madison on Wednesday.
Lebanon 8-10-18-9—45
Mariemont 10-17-16-16—59
LEBANON (1-2): Rachel Perry 3 2 8, Maygan Boettcher 1 1 4, Alex Warning 4 3 12, Rachael Sweetman 4 1 10, Ali Russell 4 0 9, Lauren Brady 1 0 2. Totals: 17-7-45
MARIEMONT (3-0): Hannah Krieger 2 5 9, Ashley Rothert 3 3 9, Aislynn Hartman 4 11 19, Olivia Griffith 2 0 6, Rebekah Justice 3 0 6, Carson Fields 3 2 8, Julia Long 1 0 2. Totals: 18-21-59
3-pointers: L 4 (Boettcher, Warning, Sweetman, Russell), M 2 (Griffith 2)
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