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Versailles senior Lauren Bruns drives against a Summit Country Day
player Saturday during the Lady
Tigers regional title game at
Springfield High School. Versailles won the game, 41-24. The Silver
Knights
suffered their first loss of the season while Versailles will
go to Columbus next Thursday for the second year in a
row to play for a
state championship. CNO Photo by Chuck Runner,
tigerballonline@netzero.net
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Summit Country
Day taps out to V- Lady Tigers defense
Versailles heading to final four
By George Starks
SPRINGFIELD- It’s been said many, many times.
Offense wins games…Defense wins championships.
Saturday in the Regional Championship game against Summit Country Day,
the Versailles Lady Tigers slapped a little defense on the Silver
Knights and scored a 41-24 victory over the undefeated Knights.
“If you would have told me this three months ago, I would have said
you’re crazy,” Versailles girls basketball coach Jacki Stonebraker.
“But as the season started to shake out and as the tournament, as I
started to see our opponents come our way, I started to say, yes, I
believe in this team. We can do this. We’re a dominate force from the
Southwest.”
Coming into the game, the Silver Knights were ranked number three in
the state in D-III.
That all came to an end Saturday.
“We went out and played our style of basketball,” commented
Stonebreaker.
In the end, it was all about the Versailles defense.
Country Day held one lead in the game with that coming off a free throw
for the first point of the game.
After that, it was all Versailles
“Our offense was good but our defense was outstanding,” said
Stonebreaker
Holding a slim one point lead in the opening eight minutes (8-7) the
Versailles defense dug in and held the Knights to only three points in
the second quarter.
With 16 minutes in the books, Versailles was up, 21-10 at the break.
The Tigers opened up the third quarter on a 7-0 run, taking a
commanding 28-10 lead and from there on, it was all academic as
Versailles would not be touched the rest of the way, leading 30-17
after three quarters of play..
“We made them play a half-court game most of the time,” said
Stonebreaker. “We took away the easy three point shots and that stopped
their offense from the outside. Our defense just took over.”
While the offense scored 41 points, 6-2 senior post player, Christa
Puthoff was held to a mere two points.
“If you would have told me that Christa would have had two points and
we would win this game, I would have said you’re crazy,” Stonebraker
said. “That was our game plan, to go inside to her and she missed some
bunnies early. She missed some bunnies late. She had some foul trouble.”
With Puthoff being shut down, it was Lauren Bruns that stepped up and
took the lead.
Bruns netted 12 points to lead the way for Versailles with Taylor
Winner chipping in with 11 in support.
Versailles will now head to Columbus to play in the Division III state
semifinals at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus.
Versailles will take on the numberone team in the state and undefeated
Doylestown Chippewa.
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