Defense Propels Circleville’s 34-33 MSL Girls Championship Win Over Bloom Carroll

Article Presented By Pickaway Ross CTC…

Gritty defensive play and a second half of strong inside offense aided the Circleville Lady Tigers in erasing a 13 point first half deficit in a 34-33 win over Bloom Carroll, Saturday at home. The victory hands Circleville the undisputed MSL-Buckeye Girls Basketball Championship for 2023-24 and their first league crown since the 2021.

After a brief 7-3 lead by Circleville, the Lady Bulldogs of Bloom Carroll went on a punishing 17-0 scoring run for their biggest lead of the game at 20-7. In the closing few minutes of the first half, the Lady Tigers were able to shut down BC while getting the margin down to 20-11 at halftime.

Trailing 23-13 in the third period, Circleville cut the deficit to 23-20 on a 7-0 run of their own, before ending the quarter down 27-22 to the Lady Bulldogs.

The Lady Tigers went on another scoring streak of 6-0 for a brief 28-27 advantage, with Bloom Carroll grabbing the lead back at 29-28. Circleville regained the lead at 30-29 with three minutes remaining in the game, then built a 32-29 margin. BC’s Marissa Wilkinson drilled a three-pointer to even the score 32-32, but the Lady Tigers surged back into a 34-32 margin and managed to yield one Bloom Carroll free-throw, then defended BC’s last possession with four seconds remaining, forcing a desperation shot from near mid-court which failed to connect in preserving their league championship victory.

Circleville’s Gabby McConnell defends Bloom Carroll’s Emily Bratton

Second half keys to victory for Circleville included cleaning up their miscues after committing 11 first half turnovers, limiting that to only 6 in the second half. They also held All-Ohioan Emily Bratton to one second half point, after she scored 11 in the first half. Bratton entered the game averaging 21 points and had a career record 42 points in Bloom Carroll’s Thursday overtime win over Teays Valley. A big factor in holding her numbers down was the defensive play of Circleville senior Faith Yancey, who played most of the final several minutes with four personal fouls. For that effort, Yancey is the Litter Media “McDonald’s Player of the Game.” Yancey also picked up defensive help from Isabelle Perini and Ava Justice, while she sat with foul trouble.

Maddie Blakeman had a huge second half, scoring all but three of her 15 points in the last two quarters. Gabby Mcconnell added 10 points and 7 rebounds, Yancey scored 6, Ally Thornsley had 2 points and 7 rebounds, and Perini had 2 points.

Bloom Carroll was led by Marissa Wilkinson’s 14 points, Emily Bratton has 12 points and 7 rebounds, Emma Sorrell scored 5 points and grabbed 7 rebounds, and Natalie lang added 2 points.

Circleville shot 46% from the field on 13/28- including 1/9 from the arc. They added 7/11 from the foul line. Bloom Carroll was held to 11/39 for only 28%- including a chilly 7/24 from the arc. BC was also cold from the charity stripe at 4/11. Circleville won the rebounding battled 22-21 and had 13 turnovers to Circleville’s 17.

The Lady Tigers improved to (13-0/20-0) in winning the MSL crown outright, while Bloom Carroll concludes their regular season at (11-3/17-5). Circleville concludes their regular season at Teays Valley Monday, February 12ths, before heading to the Division 2 Southeast District Sectionals as the #2 seed team. Bloom Carroll is a #4 seed in the Central District.