By Mark Carpenter-
A magical season for the Peebles Lady Indians came to a close on Saturday, March 9 as they traveled to Pickerington North High School for an Elite Eight match up with the Shadyside Lady Tigers. After knocking off number one seeds Waterford and Portsmouth Notre Dame, the Lady Indians were poised to take that one more step in the regional title game and make a trip to the Division IV Final Four, but that was not to be in the cards.
In their battle with Shadyside, a team which relies mainly on the three-point shot for their offense, the Lady Indians showed no big-game jitters in the early going, jumping to an eight-point lead after one quarter only to see the Lady Tigers use the three ball to grab a halftime advantage, one they would hang on to for the remainder of the game. Foul trouble haunted Coach Billie Jo Justice’s troops all night and they did pull to within one point with 4:10 left in the game, only to see Shadyside reel off 10 straight to seal the deal and end the Peebles tourney run.
“We got into some foul trouble early and that took us out of our rhythm,” said Coach Justice in her post-game radio interview. “We had to rotate some people around to try and protect others, and I think it hurt us defensively. We knew that they liked to play on the perimeter and we were just a little late rotating out a couple of times and they hit the shots.”
“We didn’t lose because of lack of effort or lack of practice, that’s just the way the game goes sometimes.”
A basket by senior Jerilin Toller on the game’s first possession, then back to back buckets by Jacey Justice the early lead at 6-2, and the lead continued to grow on pairs of free throws by Justice and Lilly Gray that made it 10-4. With 2:55 left in the first period, Justice drilled a three-pointer to push the lead out to eight, a lead sliced in half when Shadyside’s Tory Hendershot got back to back baskets.
Justice matched that with a pair of layups in the final minute of the period and an exuberant group of Lady Indians along with their very large contingent of fans on hand, celebrated a 17-9 lead after the first period of play.
That jubilation was short-lived, however as the Lady Tigers out of Belmont County, quickly recovered as the second stanza got underway. Shadyside busted out of the second quarter gate with a huge 14-0 run that included a trio of three-point goals, holding the suddenly ice cold Lady Indians scoreless for nearly six minutes and turning an eight-point deficit into a 23-17 advantage.
Finally, with 2:05 left in the first half, a Justice three-pointer broke the ice for Peebles and later free throws by Tatum Arey and Kylie Sims kept the Lady Indians close as they made it to the halftime break trailing by just four at 27-23.
The two teams swapped baskets to open the third quarter, with Peebles getting a baseline jumper from Madison Beekman to pull within 30-27, but the Lady Tigers answered that with a 7-0 run that included a three-pointer from Julie Hendershot that gave Shadyside a double digit lead at 37-27, In that span also, Gray picked up her fourth foul for the Lady Indians, something that certainly didn’t help the cause of the girls in red and white.
Down by 10, the Lady Indians suddenly sprang back to life, scoring eight straight of their own, a run that began with a Justice trey and ended with a Toller trey, and with 1:05 to go in the third, it was a ball game again, with the Shadyside lead cut to just two. A three-point goal by Baylee Wach closed out the third stanza and sent the Lady Tigers to the final eight minutes with a 40-35 lead.
Two free throws by Arey opened the scoring in the fourth quarter as the Lady Indians continued to play catch up. Shadyside scored the next four to open up a seven-point lead but Peebles rallied again, getting a stick back from Gray, a bucket from Justice, and another Grey deuce and the momentum had shifted and the Lady Indians were within 44-43 with 4:10 left in the game.
Unfortunately, that turned out to be the final high point of the night for the Peebles squad as they could only muster three more points in that final four minutes, that being a corner jumper by Harlee Wilkinson with less than a minute to play. By that time, however, the Lady Tigers had gone on a clutch 10-0 run, most of that damage done at the free throw line as the Lady Indians tried to slow down the pace and gain some extra possessions. Sometimes that strategy works, sometimes it doesn’t, and the Lady Tigers kept the Peebles girls at bay hitting 12 free throws over the game’s final eight minutes.
Though, the final score was not a bit indicative of the game’s competitiveness the final horn sounded on the Peebles season as the Lady Tigers advanced to the Final Four in Columbus with the 55-45 triumph.
The Lady Tigers improved to 24-4 on the season and were led in scoring by Tory Hendershot’s 19 points, with Baylee Wach adding 17.
For Peebles, who finished the season at 19-8 overall, Jacey Justice completed a memorable sophomore season, leading the team with 26 points in the defeat. Though Justice was unstoppable, the Lady Tigers did a nice job defensively on the rest of the Lady Indians, with the next highest point total being Gray’s 6 points. In an impressive season with a young team, Coach Justice’s troops won the school’s 19th girls sectional title plus the fifth girls district championship in school history, with a bright future in place.
“The good thing is that a lot of these kids are going to be back and they will have the opportunity to do this again,” said Coach Justice. “We just have to work hard this summer and get back at it next year.”
The loss marked the end of the high school careers for a pair of Peebles seniors, both valuable cogs in the team’s success, Jerilin Toller and Kylie Sims.
“You hate to lose the seniors, that’s where your heart goes out,” said the Peebles head coach. “They have been great kids and great leaders for us all season on and off the court. They gave us all they had and we are going to miss them.”
“You never want to see it end but we can walk out of her with our heads high proud of what we accomplished.”
Shadyside
9 18 13 15— 55
Peebles
17 6 12 10 —45
Shadyside (55): Destifanes 2 5-10 9, T. Hendershot 4 10-13 19, Coffland 0 2-2 2, J. Hendershot 1 0-0 3, Mayeres 0 2-2 2, Gorby 1 1-2 3, Wach 5 4-7 17, Team 13 24-36 55.
Peebles (45): Wilkinson 1 0-0 2, Justice 9 5-6 26, Beekman 1 0-0 2, Toller 2 0-1 4, Arey 0 3-4 3, Gray 2 2-2 6, Sims 0 2-4 2, Team 15 12-17 45.
Three-Point Goals:
Shadyside (5)- Destifanes 1, T. Hendershot 1, J. Hendershot 1, Wach 2
Peebles (3)- Justice 3
