Circleville Heads to Sweet 16 with Win over Vinton County

February 20, 2008… it was the last time Circleville won a District Championship. It was a 39-28 victory over Unioto. Now, nearly 12 years to the date of their most recent Sweet Sixteen appearance, the Tigers are heading back after a 61-45 victory over Vinton County (19-5). 

#1 Circleville (25-0) has a Regional Semi-final date with the winner of Thursday’s Lakewood/Whitehall game on Tuesday at Zanesville High School.

The Tigers began to separate themselves from Vinton County shortly following a 17-14 1st Quarter. Before the Vikings knew it, they were down by seven thanks to the inside play of Kenzie McConnell and dribble-drive attack of Jaylah Captain.

Circleville expanded its lead to 33-18 at the half… and that was without 6’1” Center Meghan Davis who sat for most of the first half due to foul trouble. 

Vinton County managed to cut the lead to 10 a couple of times in the second half, but the Tigers answered right back.

Trailing by 17, the Vikings whittled the margin to 530-43 on a Morgan Bentley three-pointer with 2:39 left. Circleville’s Tori Bircher followed with back-to-back bank shots, snuffing the Vinton County comeback. 

The Vikings had three players in double figures, led by Bentley with 16, Tegan Bartoe added 11 and Cameron Zinn had 10.

McConnell paced Circleville with 20 points. Bircher and Davis tallied 13 points each and Captain had 12. Brie Kendrick had the other three points for the Tigers.

Circleville’s return to the Sweet Sixteen is a 6:15pm tip-off Tuesday at Zanesville High School.

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