CANTON, Ohio — For much of the second half of Friday’s Division I regional final, Eastlake North played a lineup that possibly had never played together all season.
Sounds like a recipe for disaster, especially when facing Canton GlenOak. But rather than fall apart, the Rangers held a three-point lead with 5:08 left. But North failed to score the rest of the way in falling to the Golden Eagles, 46-41. Ranked seventh in the final Associated Press state poll, GlenOak, 24-2 and winners of 22 consecutive games, used its depth and size to earn a trip to Columbus.
The Rangers, who finish at 25-2, battled foul trouble for much of the first half, but that was nothing compared to what they had to deal with midway through the second quarter. Point guard Taylor Valaitis, who helped spark North’s comeback victory over Solon Tuesday, went down with a knee injury on a drive.
“When your senior point guard goes down, that’s going to limit what we can do,” North coach Paul Force said. “So, to play the way that we did and to show the resolve that we did, I’m extremely proud of that. We took the lead with girls on the floor that haven’t seen the varsity level very much.”
Destiny Leo and Abby Carter have carried the Rangers all season, and they did against GlenOak as well. Leo was held to just eight points by an outstanding defensive effort by GlenOak’s only senior in the rotation, Jade Abdullah, and Carter had a game-high 19 points, nine in the third period.
“Destiny is a great player,” Carter said. “We know every team is coming and looking to lock up Destiny. Especially with Taylor going down, I knew we needed somebody to step up.”
But there also were healthy doses of freshman Cece Hamilton, who dressed varsity games this season but saw most of her playing time on the JV level. Carli Wilson also played big minutes at key times.
“They defended Destiny well, but I think they did a really good job defending everybody,” Force said. “That’s a team that doesn’t have a whole lot of weaknesses on the offensive end or the defensive end. They’re a well put-together team. But I think we gave them all they could handle. We had a lot of girls step up.”
After trailing by 20 points in the second quarter on Tuesday, the Rangers came back to edge Solon. The biggest deficit was only eight against GlenOak, but North didn't lead until the fourth quarter. There’s something about this team that keeps it unfazed.
“Definitely, it’s the way we love each other,” Carter said. “We all have a common goal — we wanted to win. No matter how big of a run they were going on, we knew we were able to come back. We came back Tuesday night, so everything’s possible.”
Early in the fourth quarter, the Golden Eagles took a 38-35 lead on a fast-break layup by Erica Warren. North then went on a 6-0 run to take the lead. Leo banked in a short jumper, Avril Dean put back an offensive rebound of a missed 3-pointer by Leo, and then Carter added two free throws, making it 41-38.
But that’s where the scoring ended for the Rangers, who appeared to be worn down.
“I don’t know,” Force said when asked if his team ran out of gas. “I think we had some good scoring opportunities and some of them didn’t fall. We tried to spread them out and get some attacks to the basket, and some of them just didn’t fall.”
GlenOak responded with a 5-0 run of its own, with Aniyah Hall scoring after an offensive rebound to give the Golden Eagles a 43-41 lead. GlenOak clinched the game from the foul line, with Addison Mucci hitting 3-of-4 in the final 12 seconds.
“It’s not about how hard you can hit,” Force said. “It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep coming back at the other team. I think we took some of their best hits and kept coming at them to the point that we had a lead in the fourth quarter. To their credit, they took our hit and then responded to it, which is what teams do in the regional final.”
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