Circleville Lady Tigers Hold-Off Late Waverly Surge To Win D-2 Girls Basketball Crown

Article Presented By McDonald’s…

Circleville’s Lady Tigers hurried out to a 12-0 lead, then held on to win the Division 2 Sectional Basketball championship 37-32 Thursday in Circleville.

Waverly’s Kelli Stewart & Circleville’s Gabby McConnell on the jump ball: Litter Media/Mike Smith

Circleville staked a 7-0 lead after the first quarter, then ran it up to 12-0 before Waverly scored their first points on a Paige O’Bryant bucket with just over five minutes remaining in the second quarter, making it 12-2.

By halftime, Circleville led 18-9, but Waverly pulled closer at 20-17 on two Bailey Vulgamore free throws, only to see Circleville get back to a 27-17 advantage late in the third period and settled in for a 29-20 lead headed to the final quarter.

That’s when Waverly made its move, going on a 9-0 run to tie the game 29-29 on a Kelli Stewart free throw. But that is as close to a lead as Waverly would ever have, as Circleville saw Gabby McConnell take over from the inside and her teammates on the foul line to go on a 6-0 run for a 35-29 lead. Waverly closed the gap to 35-32 on a Bailey Vulgamore trey with 19 seconds to play. But, Circleville added a couple of free throws to gain the final margin of 37-32.

Circleville was led by Morgan Blakeman’s 14 points, Gabby McConnell 11 points, while Faith Yancey and Maddie Blakeman each had 6 points.

Waverly scorers were led by Bailey Vulgamore with 13 points, Kelli Stewart with 11, Caris Risner and Sadie Royster each had 3 points and Paige O’Bryant added 2 points.

Circleville improves to (19-4) on the season as Waverly’s season closes at (16-7).

Circleville advances to the District Semi at Logan High School on February 20th, where they face top seed (23-0) Fairland at 6:15pm. The Lady Dragons won their sectional title with an 82-27 pounding of Washington CH.

Watch game highlights of the Circleville-Waverly game, along with interviews with Coach Brian Bigam and “McDonald’s Players of the Game” Gabby McConnell and Maddie Blakeman, on the Litter Media LIVE Postgame Show at 10am Friday (2/17/23) on Facebook.