BOB ETTINGER
Coach Nancy Barbo and the Geneva girls basketball team prides itself on playing strong defense. It’s a been a staple of the program for all of Barbo’s 14-season tenure at the helm.
Tonight, on the biggest stage the team has ever played on, the Eagles’ defense will be tested in a way it might never have been before in a Division II regional semifinal against Struthers at Barberton High School.
“It’s one of those games where you have to, I know it sounds silly to say, but we have to be on for 32 minutes. Any time we’re not in the right spot, it could result in a bucket for them or a foul against us. We have to have focus, concentration and discipline and it needs to ride out for 32 minutes.
“We’ve learned they’re very offensive minded and they like to score a lot of points. The guards are their strength — they have three strong guards. Their point guard (Dana Mathews) is very tough. The offense pretty much runs through her.”
The Geneva (19-4)-Struthers (18-5) winner will play the Hathaway Brown-Canton South winner at 7:30 p.m. Friday in a regional championship game at Barberton. HB and South tips off at 8 tonight.
“That will be the game that we’ll have to have a little bit of a different gameplan,” Barbo said. “But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
With very little time to catch their collective breath between winning the first district championship on Saturday and tonight’s regional semifinal, Barbo isn’t trying to cap the team’s excitement. In fact, she’s telling the Eagles to enjoy the ride.
“I don’t know if you can (hold the excitement in check),” Barbo said. “With what they’re feeling right now, it’s something we have to use it to our advantage. It’s a very exciting time. There’s a lot of adrenaline. I think it’s a matter of channeling that to the right place.
“I’ve been telling them to try and absorb everything around you. I tell them not to look past anything, enjoy every moment, observe everything that’s going on around them and not think too far ahead about anything. It’s a very special time and I want them to appreciate every moment.”
The second-seeded Wildcats upset top-seeded Salem, 59-54, in the district championship to reach the regional tournament for the first time in 14 years. It was the first time the Struthers seniors had beaten Salem since they were in the eighth grade. They will be riding the wave of excitement, too.
“I think this is a big thing for us,” Struthers coach John Grandy said. “We want the kids to understand, and I think it’s the same thing for Geneva, they have to understand that they belong here. They earned it. They don’t have to apologize for being here. They earned it. They have to keep that in mind and let the chips fall. We talked to them about playing hard and whatever happens, happens.”
The Eagles’ focus on defense will be on the Struthers guards. Which, in a way, falls right in line with what Geneva has tried to do all along.
“A lot of the teams leading up to this game have been similar to that,” Barbor said. “The guard play (from the other teams) has been strong. Our focus has been on our guards have to get stops on the other guards. We did a nice job of that against Kenston. What we do will stay in line with our previous gameplans.”
However, Mathews, a 5-foot-5 point guard an an honorable-mention All-Ohio selection a year ago as a junior, will present a very unique situation for the Eagles’ defenders. She scored 38 points in the in the district championship.
“She’s huge,” Barbo said. “In practice, we focused on that quite a bit today.
“One thing we’ve noticed is she reads the defense very well. She’s not a predictable player that cuts here or there. They run set plays for her and run a lot of screens for her. She’s good at reading defense’s reaction to the screens and takes what the defense gives her. And she’s very good at finishing.”
Stopping Mathews, who is being recruited by Division II schools Ohio Dominican and Slippery Rock, or even slowing her down, will not fall on just one players’ shoulders for the Eagles.
“It’s never one person,” Barbo said. “We talk all the time that if Courtney (Thompson) has a girl, the team has her. It’s team defense. They’ve got to be able to recognize the key people, everyone has to communicate where that person is and they have to offer help when it’s needed.”
And that help defense is going to be needed with all of the screens the Wildcats will run for Mathews.
“That’s going to be crucial,” Barbo said. “We went over a few things and the girls said, ‘That’s a lot of screens.’ If we don’t move on the pass or we’re off just a step, the screen will open up a player and they are very good at knocking down shots when you make a mistake. The defense has to be spot on.”
However, the Eagles might be in trouble if they focus too much on Mathews and get lax on the rest of the team.
“Dana does a good job of leading us, but we have other people that can put it in the basket,” Grandy said.
The Wildcats’ defense will try and do pretty much the same things the Eagles have been seeing for weeks now.
“Their defense is very aggressive,” Barbo said. “It will probably be a lot like we’ve been seeing. They’ll press and try to pressure the guards.”
The Struthers’ gameplan won’t change from what it’s been all season long. There just isn’t time enough between matchups to change anything.
“We have two days to prepare,” Grandy said. “I don’t know that you put much in. We’ll emphasize on doing what we’ve done all season. We’re glad to be here. It’s been a big thrill for us.”
The Geneva guards are coming off one of their better performances as a group and will have to carry that performance into tonight.
“I’ve felt they’re capable of that kind of night any night of the week,” Barbo said. “They know they’re capable of doing it. I do think, not only as far as shooting, but also handling the ball and defensively, probably all together, they played their best game, collectively. They all came together.
“Hopefully. that will carry on into this one as well.”
The Eagles, though, will still look to get the ball inside to Taylor Webb and Natalie Stanley. The duo was held somewhat in check in the 42-29 district-championship win over Kenston by a defense that clamped down on the paint.
“As far as I know, there’s only so much you can do (to get them open) when you want them to be at certain spots on the floor,” Barbo said. “Against a zone, there’s only so much you can do. Against the man-to-man, we’ll set screens for them and hope that if there’s a mismatch, we’ll find it.”
Stopping Webb and Stanley will be a focus for the Wildcats, but they’ll try and do it by keeping the Geneva guards in check, too.
“The idea is to put pressure on the guards,” Grandy said. “If the guard has pressure, maybe they don’t see the big person. We want to keep (the guards) under pressure and make the big people run up and down the court. If we don’t, (the posts) could present a problem for us.”
Starting for the Eagles will be Thompson, Carly Cash and Jillian Nazor at the guards and Webb and Stanley in the post. Off the bench for Geneva will be guards Audra Puckrin, Suelen Gutierrez Courtney Johnson and Becky Depp and posts Ashley Meaney, Natalie Thomas and Ashli Per Due.
After a stellar performance on Saturday, the bench will be every bit as important again tonight for the Eagles.
“It doesn’t have to something that shows up in the stats or will knock your socks off,” Barbo said. “They just have to play defense the best they can and get some rebounds. It doesn’t have to be a big blowout (performance). Just enough for them to contribute.”
Struthers will start Mathews, 5-6 guard Katelyn Ardale, 5-8 guard/forward Helen-Marie Hird, 6-foot forward Katelyn Opritza and 5-5 forward Ashley Baron. Off the bench will be guards Alana Smith and Sadie Noling, guard/forward Marissa Hird and forward Amanda Ditman.
