Sidney senior guard Kiara Hudgins lunges past Centerville’s Halley Boeke during a Division I sectional final on Wednesday at the Trojan Activities Center. Hudgins scored a game-high 16 points for the Yellow Jackets, which lost 41-34 to the Elks. Sidney finishes 17-6 overall.
Luke Gronneberg | Sidney Daily News
TROY — Sidney couldn’t keep up late in a Division I sectional final on Wednesday, but coach Jamal Foster said the team again displayed the grit it’s known for.
Centerville dominated the last five minutes and handed the Yellow Jackets a season-ending 41-34 loss at Troy High School’s Trojan Activities Center.
Sidney had struggled all game long against Centerville’s triangle and two defense, but senior guard Jordan Scully made a basket with around six minutes left to give the squad a 29-27 lead.
Emily Grim, a 6-foot-0 senior forward, took over for the Elks.
Sidney beat Centerville 44-38 in a nonconference game on Jan. 11 and held Grim to one basket and a total of eight points.
The Yellow Jackets, which don’t have a player over 5-10, had contained her through the first three quarters on Wednesday. But she scored 11 of her 15 points in the fourth quarter to help the squad rally, including seven in a 10-0 run, which gave Centerville a 37-29 lead.
“She’s a good mixture,” Foster said. “She can put it on the floor, she can hit the mid, she can step out and hit the 3. We did a good job of containing her, but she got a couple of and-one buckets and makes them at the line. She’s a quality player. We knew what type of player she was when we were preparing for her. She made some big-time plays down the stretch that her team needed her to make.”
Sidney finishes 17-6 overall. The Yellow Jackets won their third consecutive Miami Valley League title this year despite losing three starters to graduation off last year’s squad.
Sidney will lose four seniors to graduation, including point guard Kiara Hudgins, who was named first team all-MVL last week. She missed most of last season due to an ACL injury but played better than ever this year. She averaged about 12 points, four rebounds, 3.5 steals and three assists per game.
“Overall, she left everything she had out there on the floor, on both ends of the court,” Foster said. “It’s not the outcome any of us wanted, not the outcome she wanted, but it’s not due to a lack of effort by Kiara Hudgins.”
Centerville (15-9) played a triangle and two designed to stop Scully and fellow junior guard Larkyn Vordemark.
It mostly worked. Scully finished with 10 points, seven of which came in the fourth quarter. Vordemark finished with four and didn’t make a field goal. Both average over 14 points per game.
“It made it difficult,” Hudgins said of the triangle and two. “We mostly had three main scorers, and taking two of those out put more pressure on me to score, and everyone else.”
Hudgins, who is committed to Ohio Northern University, scored a game-high 16 points. She kept the Yellow Jackets in it in the first half by scoring 11, including a basket with 55 seconds left in the second quarter, which gave Sidney its first lead of the game at 19-18.
Sidney will also lose guards Lauren Conley and Aja’nae Cotton to graduation, along with forward Camryn Edwards.
“I’d like to thank them all for what they’ve done to push the program forward for three to four years, and Cam for this year,” Foster said. “… All those girls have been asked to do things and make sacrifices for the program for four years. They haven’t complained once. I’m very thankful for this class. I’m sad to see them go, but I know they’re going to be successful in the future.”
Conley, who played sparingly off the bench off the bench in regular season, hit a 3 in the first half. She was brought in due to Centerville leaving shooters wide open on the arc.
“That’s the epitome of being ready when your number is called,” Foster said. “A player who has supported all year long. She can put the ball in the hole, and we had really struggled in the first half to put the ball in the hole. She stepped right up and made that basket. A big moment for Lauren. She really deserved it.”
Sidney was hoping to advance to a district final, but again fell short against a school an enrollment nearly three times as large. The squad lost 51-49 to Centerville in a district semifinal last year and was knocked out in a 40-39 loss to Beavercreek three years ago when Hudgins was a freshman.
It’s been a common occurrence in Southwest Ohio in recent decades for smaller D-I’s to be struggle to beat significantly larger ones in postseason play.
Like Sidney, Bellbrook is a smaller D-I that has enjoyed much regular-season success in recent years, but has struggled to get by opponents with significantly larger enrollments in tournament play.
The Golden Eagles (16-8) were knocked out by upstart Springfield in overtime in Wednesday’s second sectional final in Troy. They were knocked out by Fairmont a year ago and Miamisburg three and four years ago in sectional games despite having won at least 18 contests each of those seasons.
The enrollment gap among D-I teams has been a big issue, and the OHSAA has cited it as a factor in its recent decision to expand from four to seven divisions in several sports, including basketball.
Sidney (and Bellbrook) each are likely to be Division III when the new divisional setup goes into effect next season.
“You’ve still got the play the game,” Foster said. “We value who we’re playing each time, just being able to compete. But there’s two seasons each year, regular season and postseason. We’ve got to do a better job preparing for postseason.”
Hudgins said Sidney playing in Division III in the future will allow the program to “aspire higher.”
“I think it will open more doors,” Hudgins said.
The Elks led throughout the first half. After Hudgins put Sidney ahead late in the second quarter, sophomore post Halley Boeke made a basket to give Centerville a 20-19 halftime lead.
The Yellow Jackets scored the first four points of the third quarter to take a 23-20 lead, but the Elks battled back to take a lead. Vordemark hit a pair of free throws with 1:08 left, which gave Sidney a 26-25 lead at the end of the quarter.
After Scully put Sidney ahead by two with about six minutes left, the squad didn’t score again for four minutes. Grim led a 10-0 run in the meantime, which put Centerville in control. She hit a few late free throws to help solidify the result.
“We couldn’t manage to get buckets there when it mattered most,” Foster said. “We were fatigued fighting through that triangle and two, just figuring out a way to get some easier shots with the girls that were getting face guarded, or not a clean look at the basket.
“We have seen junk defenses all year long. That team is pretty athletic and they were pretty big as far as causing us problems. We had to figure out a way to put points on the board outside of the main three, and couldn’t. That was a good game plan by them.”
Centerville will face Springfield in a district semifinal on Saturday in Troy. The Wildcats (13-10) lost 72-50 to Centerville on Nov. 29 but beat the Elks 61-55 on Jan. 3.
Reach Bryant Billing at 937-538-4818, or follow @SidneyOHSports on Twitter and @BryantBillingSDN on Facebook.
