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Western Reserve stopped again by rival McDonald

Staff photo / Brian Yauger Western Reserve’s Danielle Vuletich pulls down a rebound against McDonald in Thursday’s regional semifinal.

MASSILLON — From the opening tip, it seemed everything was going McDonald’s way.

Two of the Mahoning Valley’s perennial girls basketball powers faced off on the regional stage Thursday at Perry High School.

McDonald was on a mission, however, and they advance to the Division IV regional final after riding an opening 15-4 run to a 57-25 win over Western Reserve.

“They are so focused right now,” McDonald coach Tony Matisi said. “Like no team I’ve had before. They know what they want, they’re not settling for anything. They’ve got their sights set on something.”

As the regular season was winding down, McDonald made it an issue to pick up the pace of the game, especially on the defensive end.

Staff photo / Brian Yauger Molly Howard (20) of McDonald eyes the basket while being guarded by Western Reserve’s Kennedy Miller.

“The last month of the season, we’ve really picked it up on the defensive end, we wanted to force the issue,” Matisi said. “We want to make it a fast game. We can’t afford to be in a half-court game, we’ve got too many athletes. We’ve got to push the ball.”

That approach helped as McDonald was able to prevent any Western Reserve players from reaching double figures.

Western Reserve senior Dani Vuletich led the team with five points.

A lot of Thursday’s success came from lessons learned in the first two meetings between the teams.

“(Vuletich) hurt us the first two games inside and it was mainly because we’re letting this entry pass in without any kind of pressure at all,” Matisi said. “We wanted to pick up the pressure on the entry pass, make it a tougher pass and we brought some backside help. We had Molly (Howard) front, and we did a great job.”

Junior Lucy Wolford was the sparkplug on offense for McDonald, leading the team with 19 points. Sophia Costantino scored 14 and Molly Howard chipped in 13.

Matisi thought having played on this same floor last year gave his team the edge as well.

“I thought it was really important they were here last year,” he said. “Just to get the feel of it, see what it’s like. They knew the floor looked 100 miles long.

“I was worried about the first four minutes of the game, but they knew what they were doing. They came out and, you know, they set the tone defensively. And just a great defensive effort.”

Western Reserve ends its season at 21-6. The one thing Reserve coach Steve Miller wants to be sure of, is that this game doesn’t define what a successful season his team had.

“I’m extremely disappointed, because I think when it ends this way, my worry and my concern, is that some people might let this define who we are as a team, as individual players, and that’s what bothers me,” Miller said. “I told these guys you know in the world of sports, that those of us that have been around long enough, know that great teams get blitzed and get hammered often.

“Unfortunately, whether it’s the Super Bowl or anything, there’s great teams every year that you wonder, ‘How did that happen?'”

Western Reserve graduates a class of four, including point guard Kennedy Miller and Vuletich, who is the program’s all-time leading scorer.

They return starter Brooke Schantz and multiple bench players who saw solid varsity time including Lisa Eichert and Alyvia Hughes.

“We’re gonna hold our head high,” Miller said. “This is a tough lesson to learn. You play sports, ultimately for the wins, for the highs, but you learn a lot in these moments. You learn a lot in the lows and the girls are gonna be able to look back on this moment when there’s difficult times in life, and they’re gonna say, ‘I’ve been through stuff like this before.'”

McDonald (17-2) continues its run toward the final four Saturday when it takes on Shadyside at Massillon Perry.

“We’ve got a few tapes we’ve been looking at,” Matisi said. “They’re very athletic, good shooters, so it’ll be fun.”

Tipoff for Saturday’s game is set for 7:30.

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