Prep girls basketball: Surging Monroe will play for sectional title

There wasn’t much suspense involved in Monroe High School’s latest girls basketball victory.

The Hornets’ pressure defense dominated Southwestern Buckeye League rival Oakwood in a Division II sectional semifinal Tuesday night and powered Monroe to a 55-33 victory at Lebanon.

“We knew what we needed to do and got it done,” said sophomore guard Olivia Wells-Daniels, who contributed 10 points and seven rebounds to the winning effort. “We’d already played them twice, so we knew what was coming. We’re more of a strategical team. We try to stick to our game plan, and when all else fails, we run.”

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The Jills opened the season with a 55-50 win over the Hornets, who returned the favor with a 45-30 triumph on Feb. 3.

Fourth-seeeded Monroe (17-6) had lots of balance in Round 3. Erica Thompson collected 11 points and seven rebounds, Sophie Sloneker scored 9 points, Kylee Slone tossed in 8 points, and Jahsalyn Robinson collected 4 points and 12 rebounds.

“We’re not setting a lot of plays for one person,” said Hornets coach Chad Allen, whose squad has 14 victories in its last 16 games. “We’re not having one person shoot the ball 25 times. The girls are really unselfish. They move the ball. They look for the open person. And then we usually have three or four people close to double figures. That’s what we have to do to be successful.”

Oakwood (13-11), the No. 7 seed, shot 19.5 percent from the floor. The Jills managed one second-half field goal, a 3-pointer by Kyndall Ketterer early in the fourth quarter.

“It wasn’t good,” Oakwood coach Jeremey Finn said. “It was one of those nights where the rim’s a little smaller than what we’d like it to be.

“Hats off to Monroe. When they press like that, it just makes things really difficult. Our girls got a little down early trying to figure out where to go and what to do, and Monroe just keeps coming. Even when you do go to the basket, they’ve got somebody sliding over to help. That’s kind of the way it went tonight.”

Ketterer’s 9 points and 12 boards paced the Jills. Margie Conrath also scored 8 points.

The turnover count (15) wasn’t massive, but Oakwood looked flustered most of the night.

“We just said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to do full-court pressure. We’ve got to try to wear ’em down,’ ” Allen said. “So that’s what we did. We pressed the whole game and were able to rotate well enough to keep everybody fresh.”

Wells-Daniels is the Hornets’ leading scorer with a 12.6 average in 12 games. She sat out the first 11 contests after transferring from Middletown.

“I was antsy sitting out and excited when I finally got to play,” Wells-Daniels said. “I thought it was going to be good because I have a good surrounding cast. We’re a good bonding team. We don’t have any hate in the group.”

Monroe will face fifth-seeded Franklin (17-6), another SWBL rival, for a sectional title at 6 p.m. on Monday at Lebanon. They also split during the regular season.

“I don’t want to be too confident, but we’ve been playing pretty well the last 10, 12 games,” Allen said. “We know it’s going to be a fight on Monday night. They’ve got one of the best players in the whole area, so we’re going to have to crank it up even more if we want to beat them.”

Finn is looking for big things from Oakwood next season.

“I’m proud of our kids. They had a great year,” he said. “We don’t have any seniors, so we can keep getting better. We’re excited about where the program’s headed.”

Oakwood 11-7-2-13—33

Monroe 15-15-11-14—55

OAKWOOD (13-11): Kylie Neff 1 0 2, Kylie Foos 1 1 3, Lauren Hapgood 2 2 6, Kyndall Ketterer 2 3 9, Abby Duwel 1 0 3, Ellie Duwel 0 2 2, Margie Conrath 1 5 8. Totals: 8-13-33

MONROE (17-6): Kylee Slone 3 1 8, Sophie Sloneker 3 2 9, Erica Thompson 4 3 11, Jahsalyn Robinson 1 2 4, Olivia Wells-Daniels 5 0 10, Samantha Schwab 1 2 4, Alyssa Beckett 2 0 4, Brooke Frazier 1 3 5. Totals: 20-13-55

3-pointers: O 4 (Ketterer 2, Conrath, A. Duwel), M 2 (Slone, Sloneker)

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