Beavercreek, seeded #3, were too much for Lady Cougars in first round action.

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Edgewood falls to No. 3 Beavercreek 

By Skip Weaver

Staff Writer

Friday, February 20, 2009

CENTERVILLE - The Edgewood High School girls basketball team knew how difficult its Division I first-round tournament game was going to be before it ever began Thursday, Feb. 19 at Centerville High School.

The 22nd seeded Cougars had the nearly insurmountable task of trying to upset No. 3 seed Beavercreek, but they didn't let that stop them from giving it all they had.

In the end, however, all the effort they gave wasn't enough to overcome the Beavers, who advanced in the tournament with a 69-29 win.

"The one thing we did was we played hard," Edgewood coach Greg Brown said. "When you play in a game like this, all you can ask is for your kids to play hard and smart. I thought we did for the most part."

Edgewood (6-14) wanted to take away Beavercreek's leading scorer Mikaela Ruef, a Division I recruit who will play at Stanford next year. She leads the Beavers with a 13.9 scoring average and scored 10 against the Cougars.

But in trying to take away the inside game, Edgewood took its chances against a team that shoots 27 percent from behind the 3-point line. The Beavers drilled 7-of-18 3-pointers in this game, three by junior Sammy Haddix.

"We knew they were more of a slashing team that finishes well around the basket," Brown said. "So we wanted to make them shoot over top of us and they did. They were hot."

Junior Sara Kocian had two of those three's and led the Beavers (18-2) in scoring with 14 points.

"We're a pretty good shooting team, but starting out it didn't look like it," Beavercreek coach Ed Zink said. "They were trying to keep the ball away from Mikaela, so we had to hit from outside and we did it enough.

"In the tournament, everyone presents a problem," he continued. "You have to come out and play well or you're done. We have a talented team, but at times I thought (Edgewood) played harder than we did. Give them credit for that."

Seniors Leanne Williams and Sarah Schueller led the Cougars with 11 and seven points respectively.

"We had nothing to lose and everything to gain," Williams said. "We knew this could be our last game and we had to give everything we had.

"They are a good team," she continued, "but we couldn't play scared. We had to do everything we could."

Schueller, who tried to play through a hard fall in the first half that left her a bit bruised, agreed.

"I wanted to go back in more than anything," Schueller said. "I didn't want to feel like I was letting my team down."

Both girls described playing their careers at Edgewood as a "great experience."

"I'm really going to miss my two seniors," Brown said of Williams and Schueller. "They brought leadership and stability and did everything I asked of them. I couldn't be more proud of them."

*Middletown Journal*