For the second straight season, it was a clash of Metro Athletic Conference rivals who dueling for a district title. Once again, the Streetsboro Rockets girls’ basketball team prevailed, beating Portage County foe and MAC rival Field 60-48 in the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division IV Northeast 4 district championship last Saturday evening at Lordstown High School in Warren.
“When I started doing this, being a district champion was not even a thought in anybody’s mind,” said Coach Carl Singer. “Streetsboro didn’t do that, not in girls’ basketball, so for us to come out and do it back-to-back and meet this expectation is special.”
If the Rockets (21-3, 14-0) defeat Canfield in the OHSAA Division IV regional semifinal game on Wednesday evening, they will face either Laurel or Perry in the regional championship at the Canton Memorial Fieldhouse on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.
Despite holding the lead for most of the game, the Rockets’ grasp on the game was slowly slipping away as Field continued trimming its lead.
Things appeared to go from bad to worse when senior center Naomi Benson suffered an ankle injury when she took a hard fall going for a rebound and an opposing player landed on her with 5:45 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Senior guard Sydney Abbuhl acknowledged that every Rocket player’s heart stopped when they saw their leader go down.
“We were all shaken,” said the 5-foot-7 guard who scored 13 points, grabbed three rebounds and dished out three assists. “We were planning on making it far in the tournament, so we really need her for that.”
Benson eventually got up but needed to be helped off of the court to have her ankle attended to. As frightening as it was for Streetsboro to see the University of Illinois commit suffer a potentially serious injury, there was still a game to play and it only held a 10-point lead.
According to the 10-year coach, it was fight or flight for the Rockets.
“We have been in these situations and played these competitive games, so we know what our girls are made of and they stepped up and did what they do,” he added.
Having only scored six points in the second quarter on a pair of three-point baskets, Abbuhl came alive in the fourth quarter, scoring seven points including playing a key role in the Rockets’ surge near the end of the fourth quarter to assume control.
“In the beginning when we were hitting our shots, I didn’t have to shoot much,” Abbuhl said. “You want to get off a good shot, not a forced one, so when we needed to score in that second quarter, I was there to deliver.”
When Benson left the game, Streetsboro held a 49-39 advantage. Although the 6-foot-3 senior did not return to the game, the Rockets finished the job, fueled by s 9-2 run to take a commanding 58-41 lead en route to the second straight district title in school history.
Although the Falcons had staged several runs and even trimmed the lead to five points at one point in the fourth period before Benson went down, Abbuhl said that Streetsboro knew losing was not an option after her injury.
“At first we were scared but we got in the huddle and talked about it,” she said. “We said we have to win this for Naomi. We said she would be really mad if we went out there and lost.”
The small senior class of Abbuhl, Benson and guard Raegan Hendon cemented themselves in the record books as being the only girls’ basketball players to become two-time district champions.
“It feels amazing,” Benson noted as she scored 15 points, collected 16 rebounds, recorded one assist and blocked one shot. “To make history as a two-peat, there is no better feeling.”
Although the Falcons were relentless, Streetsboro had them playing from behind from the start of the game with Field’s only lead being at the beginning of the game when it took a 2-0 edge, and the Rockets responded with a 7-0 run. The Rockets buried three 3-point shots to take a 20-10 lead after the first period.
“It was a big difference,” Benson said. “Coach Singer told us to come out hot and come out strong and send a message that we were not playing around, and I feel like we did that.”
Benson added that the Rockets took great pride in being a part of another district title game in which MAC rivals battled it out but said that the second district championship carried greater meaning as it was a duel of Portage County rivals.
“It just feels great,” she said. “Last year we played Norton and we are in a conference with Norton but with Field, we are very close with them. I feel like I personally know those girls off of the court and just to play them one last time was amazing.”
