Staff photo / Brian Yauger. Springfield pours onto the court after winning the Division IV Massillon Regional championship on Saturday night. The Tigers now advance to their first state final four.

MASSILLON — Springfield got revenge.

Last year’s Tiger team was ousted in the regional semifinals by Buckeye Central. Springfield wasn’t letting its season end to them again however.

Points came at a premium early on Saturday, but the Tigers rode an early lead and carried an early lead to a 34-28 victory over the Buckettes in the Division IV, Massillon Regional final.

The win punches the team’s ticket to Dayton for the program’s first trip to the state final four.

“There’s no better feeling. I couldn’t be prouder of the kids,” Springfield coach John Matisi said. “We thought this was something that we can maybe accomplish here. We didn’t really talk about it much, but these last couple of weeks, they walked in and we just had that look, like ‘I think we can do some damage’. Just to be here and to do this is incredible.”

While Thursday’s victory over Dalton came off a red-hot fourth quarter, the Tigers came out guns blazing from the opening tilt against Buckeye Central.

In a game where points were tough to come by, Springfield muscled for every one.

“Coach wanted us to bring in our fourth quarter energy for the whole game and not just leave it in the fourth quarter, because we’re known as a fourth-quarter team,” senior Madison Lesnak said. “He said if we use that whole energy the whole time, we had an easy way of just pulling through and being able to work with this team.”

The defenses took center stage Saturday as the halftime buzzer sounded with an 11-10 Tiger advantage.

More shots started falling in the second half. In fact, both teams outscored their first-half effort in the third quarter alone.

Jacey Mullen led the Tigers with 13 points. When the shots weren’t falling, she would will her way into the paint to get those second and third chances. It paid off, scoring 11 of her 13 points in the second half.

It was a top-to-bottom effort.

“We needed everybody,” Matisi said. “Ava (Vecchione) made a lay up, she made a couple of free throws, she played tremendously. It takes everybody to do this, and everybody had a hand in it tonight.”

Having faced this same team last year, and returning all but two players from last season’s squad, the Tigers had high hopes all year. They’ve been determined to prove that they weren’t a one-year wonder.

That desire to prove themselves has been the exact fuel this group needed.

“I think coming back this year, returning everyone except for two girls, we had an idea in our head that we were going to have to get back (here),” Mullen said. “If we were going to get there, we were going to have to work hard. I think all of this season has just been trying to prove that we’re better than we were last year and we were going to make it.”

That being said, their obstacle in the regional final was not an easy one to overcome.

The Buckettes have dominated this region for the last decade. They’ve become one of the signature programs in the state. To dethrone them is an accomplishment in itself for the Tigers.

“Seven years in a row. They are one of the standard bearers in Northeast Ohio,” Matisi said. “They’re the program that we’re trying to get to, so to be able to knock them off and compare ourselves to them is special.”

The most decorated team in program history adds a new achievement to its resume. Regional champion.

“We talked about this earlier today,” Matisi said. “We’ve already broken all the records, there’s nothing left to do. Let’s go out and win a game. We’re playing with house money. We’ve got to play loose, we’ve got to come out and play our style and we did that.”

Now, Springfield looks toward Dayton, where they’ll be taking on Toledo Christian. Start time is set for 6 p.m. on Thursday at UD Arena.

byauger@tribtoday.com