By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

Mogadore girls basketball coach Jen Ritch was still trying to process her team’s win.

“Did that really happen?” she asked her senior standout Amelia Morris.

Yes, it did.

The Wildcats knocked off the Danbury Lakers on Saturday, 45-37, to win the Division VII regional championship and advance to Ohio’s Final Four.

Mogadore will play in the state semifinal on Friday against Ottoville. The game’s location and start time will be announced by the OHSAA on Sunday night.

The Wildcats are the first team in school history to win a regional title.

Shortly after the game, the historical aspect still had not been fully processed by Ritch.

“The fact that we won and what it means to the team and school has not really sunk in yet,” said the veteran coach, whose team received a police escort down Cleveland Avenue on their return back to the school on Saturday night.

One thing Ritch did know was that her Cats played as well as she could have imagined.

“We played a perfect game. Our best game of the season,” Ritch said. “I could not have asked them to execute the gameplan better than what they did.”

Ritch knew that her team’s potential success would be slowing down the Lakers’ potent transition offense. It was a key factor in Danbury’s victory over Warren JFK in Thursday’s regional semifinal.

On Saturday, those same opportunities were not there as Mogadore (23-4) muted them.

“We played the best defensive game we have all year,” Ritch said. “I don’t think (Danbury) had one transition attempt tonight, honestly. We practiced our gameplan this morning, and I have to give a shoutout to our JV team that dressed as our scout team today. They helped us out immensely at practice.”

Offensively, the Wildcats did enough.

“We knocked down shots when it mattered, and we hit a bunch of big free throws late in the game,” Ritch said.

The Wildcats battled back and forth through three quarters, the score remaining close throughout. Then, second-half “and-ones” by Kasey Bolyard and Ari Tompkins helped spark momentum, helping build a 10-point Wildcats lead midway through the fourth quarter.

A Danbury (23-4) 3-pointer and a free throw cut Mogadore’s lead to six. However, the Wildcats knocked down a free throw of their own on the other end to push the lead back to seven, which is where it hovered the rest of the game as the Cats closed out the game.

“We were dialed in tonight,” Ritch said.

Mogadore was led in scoring by Ari Tompkins, who had 13 points and also pulled down eight rebounds.

Morris scored 10 points, while Julie Tompkins buried three 3-pointers for nine points. Hayli Clester also tied for a team-high with eight rebounds.

Danbury did not have a player reach double-digits in scoring and were led offensively by Mia McDonald (9 points) and Lauren Bergman (9 points).

The game was tied at the end of the first quarter and Danbury held an 18-17 lead at halftime.

Mogadore won the third quarter, by a decisive margin at 10-3, which helped them gain the lead they held onto in the fourth quarter.