West (25-2) will return to Fairmont on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. to face Mount Notre Dame, a 54-50 winner over the Firebirds on Dec. 1, for the regional championship.
“This is what we anticipated happening,” Firebirds coach Andy Fishman said. “I’m having the time of my life. It’s so awesome. This is the way it should be. It does not get better than this.”
McAuley made West work hard for the right to advance, staging a furious comeback after falling behind 43-22 midway through the third quarter.
The Mohawks got as close as 51-47 on a Sydney Lambert basket with 5:09 left, but the Firebirds sank 11 of 12 free throws from there to ice the victory.
“We played as a team, and that’s what you’ve got to do to win,” Cannatelli said. “Our coach has a saying: Our best is better than their best. So we just go out and play our hardest, and if we do that, we expect to win.”
“What a frickin’ great game. That was so much fun,” Fishman said. “We got their best shot, and our guys were game. I felt that we played with great execution through 85 percent of the game. Then we had about 5 percent of the game where we went out of our wheelhouse. And then we had gritty, hardy, heroic play by key players. We have girls that won’t let us lose. That’s the way I truly feel.”
Danielle Wells had nine points and 10 rebounds, leading West to a 37-21 advantage on the glass. Arianne Whitaker grabbed six boards.
“I just tried to jump around them because I know I’m not the tallest girl out there,” said Wells, a 5-foot-7 guard. “Our coaches always tell us that not only do the posts need to rebound, but the guards need to get in there too. So it was more of a conscious effort. I had to get in there and help.”
Said Fishman, “D just rebounded the heck out of the basketball. She was crashing the offensive glass, crashing the defensive glass. She’s a winner.”
McAuley shot 50 percent from the floor in the fast-paced affair, but its 15 turnovers led to 20 Firebird points.
Emily Vogelpohl (22) and Alexah Chrisman (20) topped the scoring for the Mohawks, who finished 22-4.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be a blowout at the end of the game,” McAuley coach Dan Wallace said. “The players that I have, the playmakers, the shooters, the post players, the athleticism … I never lost faith in this team for a second.
“That’s a great basketball team,” he added of West, which extended its winning streak to 18. “Good execution. Great shooters. Athletic. Crazy fast. We knew we were going to be able to run with them, but Lakota West just made shots. We played great defense, but they hit contested buckets on us.”
Staples missed the district-final win over Lebanon with a knee injury and practiced minimally this week. She didn’t start Wednesday, but made an immediate impact after entering the game in the first three minutes.
“Coach let me get my nerves out and told me to let him know if I needed to come out,” said Staples, who hit a 3-pointer in her initial 52 seconds of action and equaled her career-best scoring effort. “I made that 3, and I kind of got my spark back. Once I started running, I felt pretty good.
“It’s a little sore now (after the game), but I didn’t feel much pain in the game.”
Fishman was effusive in his praise of Staples, who put up 11 points in the third stanza. She was a perfect 9 of 9 on field goals and hauled in five rebounds.
“What heady, intelligent play by our junior point guard,” Fishman said. “I’m so proud of all the girls, and she’s right there at the top of the list.”
The Firebirds did look a bit flustered as the Mohawks stormed back to make a game of it. Vogelpohl and Chrisman combined for 26 second-half points, and McAuley drained six of its eight 3-pointers after the break.
“Any team that has a couple seniors like Emily Vogelpohl and Sydney Lambert is going to fight until the end,” Cannatelli said. “We knew they were going to make runs and we were going to make runs. We just had to focus on slowing them down and playing our game at the end.”
“You felt the common fear that they might actually take back the lead, but it wasn’t that strong,” Staples said. “I knew we were going to pull it off.”
“Honestly, with that time left, I expected what happened to happen. We would extend our lead because they would have to come out and defend us,” Fishman added. “We truly believe that we can put five players on the floor together who can all handle the ball and get to the basket and make free throws, and that’s what happened.”
West was 22 of 27 at the charity stripe. The Mohawks were 9 of 18.
Vogelpohl, headed to Wright State University, collected seven boards, three assists and three steals. She is one of four McAuley seniors (Lauren Roll, Ariel Johnson and Lambert are the others).
“I’m very proud of these kids. This is the kind of team we can celebrate, the kind of team we can build from going forward,” Wallace said. “I’m especially proud of these seniors for what they taught everybody else in our program about effort, about winning, about poise and about how to carry yourself.”
Abby Prohaska contributed seven points, five rebounds and three steals for the Firebirds, who shot 38.5 percent from the field.
West will now turn its attention to another Girls Greater Catholic League opponent, Mount Notre Dame. The Cougars (24-2) blitzed Fairmont 65-42 on Wednesday at Lakota East.
“We’ve been preparing the whole season for this game,” Wells said. “We will be ready.”
Notes: Wells' two assists gave her 84 for the year, setting a school single-season record. Allison Whitenack totaled 83 in 2006 … Cannatelli was 3 of 7 from 3-point range. She's converted three or more treys in the Firebirds' last 10 games … The West-MND winner will advance to the Final Four at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus, facing either Newark or Hilliard Bradley on March 20 at 8 p.m. … The Firebirds are 48-17 in tournament play since West opened in 1997.
McAuley 14-8-18-19—59
Lakota West 21-9-20-18—68
MCAULEY (22-4): Lauren Roll 1 1 4; Sydney Lambert 2 0 4; Ariel Johnson 1 0 2; Emily Vogelpohl 9 1 22; Alexah Chrisman 6 6 20; Hallie Heidemann 1 0 3; Claire Lynch 1 0 3; Caroline Taphorn 0 1 1. Totals: 21-9-59.
LAKOTA WEST (25-2): Danielle Wells 2 5 9; Lauren Cannatelli 5 11 24; Arianne Whitaker 1 0 2; Lexi Wasan 0 2 2; Abby Prohaska 2 2 7; Nia Staples 9 1 20; Madisyn Oxley 1 0 3; Emily Haar 0 1 1. Totals: 20-22-68.
3-pters: M 8 (Vogelpohl 3, Chrisman 2, Heidemann, Roll, Lynch), LW 6 (Cannatelli 3, Staples, Oxley, Prohaska)
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