The Rootstown girls basketball team poses with their state runner-up trophy on Saturday at the University of Dayton Arena. Paisley Nader/Portage Sports

By Tom Nader
Publisher and Editor

For the first time this season, the Rootstown girls basketball team found themselves inside a difficult predicament.

A quartet of Rootstown defenders, including Sophi Smith, Nadia Lough, Cloe Bengston and Addie Germann all converge to try to stop Columbus Grove’s Aubrey Schroeder.
Shannon Eldreth/Portage Sports

The team’s patented run-and-jump defense that had relentlessly and successfully hounded and plagued the previous 28 opponents was suddenly up against a backcourt prepared to handle it.
And for a season that lasted 20 weeks, 29 games an 928 minutes of on-court action, the Rovers’ first 6 minutes of Saturday’s Division VI state championship became painfully difficult.
By then, the Rovers were in a big hole, trailing 20-2.
It took Rootstown more than 7 minutes to make a field goal against a physical and long Columbus Grove defense and were behind 22-6 after the first quarter.
As valiantly as the Rovers tried, battling nearly point-for-point the rest of the way, Rootstown never recovered from its slow start and the curtain dropped on the program’s historic season in a 65-46 loss to the Bulldogs.
The defeat ended the greatest single season in Portage County history.
Rootstown became the first girls basketball team to every play for a state championship.
Along the way, the team won a single-season school and county record 27 games.
“This is a special group, and they changed the basketball culture in our community forever. I am very, very proud of them,” Rootstown head coach Joe Leonard said.

The Rovers’ Sophi Smith puts up a layup during the first quarter of Saturday’s game against Columbus Grove.
Paisley Nader/Portage Sports

It didn’t take long on Saturday, though, for Leonard to sense that his team’s trademark defensive style may be in jeopardy of being vulnerable.
With senior standout Lauryn Auchmuty, Columbus Grove’s 2,000-point scorer and ultimate floor general, the Bulldogs repeatedly mastered the Rovers’ pressure in the first quarter and finished with a variety of uncontested layups to build a sizable lead.
“This was the first team we have played this year that we were not able to do what we do,” Leonard said. “We did it to every else, and we expected to be able to do it tonight, but we just couldn’t. Nobody had pressed them all year, and we hoped to be the first team to do it. We just never were able to get them uncomfortable and it hurt us, because we were not able to turn our defensive pressure into offensive scores like we normally do.”
Auchmuty was slow to get into the scoring column, not making her first field goal until 6 minutes into the first quarter, but her presence was felt throughout that time as the trusted ball-handler and decision-maker who kept her teammates composed.
Auchmuty finished with a game-high 17 points and filled out her stat line with seven assists, six rebounds and five steals.
The first-quarter benefactor to Auchmuty’s ability to manipulate Rootstown’s defense was Kendal Palte, who scored 10 of her 14 points in the first 8 minutes.
From there, Auchmuty asserted herself offensively, but the Bulldogs received plenty of production from Nicole Nesby and Aubrey Schroeder.
Nesby, the Dogs’ 6-foot junior was a gamechanger defensively, while also being an opportunistic scorer on offense. She had 13 points, on a perfect 5-for-5 shooting performance, while adding 11 rebounds and four blocked shots as a lockdown defender in the post.

Rootstown’s Addy Germann, Kelsey Bittecuffer and Cloe Bengston all react after Sophi Smith (12) took a charge in the second quarter.
Shannon Eldreth/Portage Sports

Schroeder, an athletic wing, came off the bench to add an offensive boost.
Following the 20-2 start, Columbus Grove only outscored Rootstown 45-44 the rest of the way.
“In a game like this, I thought that the team that could come out and be more like themselves and be more relaxed, would have the advantage. We didn’t do that, and it was hard for us to get settled in and when you play a team that talented, you find yourself in a hole,” Leonard said. “Our girls did not quit, though. I would not have let them quit, but I also knew that they would not let themselves quit.”
That attitude quickly became evident in the second quarter, which Rootstown won 13-11, to cut Grove’s halftime lead to 33-19.
Grove opened the third quarter in an uncharacteristic 1-3-1 zone, a change head coach Brian Schroeder said was suggested by Auchmuty, and it helped spark the Bulldogs’ to another big run, this time 18-7, to open up the team’s largest lead of the game at 51-26.
Even still, the Rovers were resilient and went on a 17-4 run of their own to cut their deficit to 55-43 with 3:30 to play when senior Addy Germann buried a 3-pointer from the right corner.
On the very next possession, though, Auchmuty found Schroeder for a basket as she was fouled to make it 57-43. Schroeder missed the free throw, but Auchmuty all but sealed the game with steals on the next two Rovers’ empty possessions. On both steals, Auchmuty as fouled in Grove’s offensive sets and she buried all four free throws to push the lead back to 61-43.

Rootstown point guard Kelsey Bittecuffer dribbles from the right wing against Columbus Grove’s Allison Thompson.
Paisley Nader/Portage Sports

“On the biggest stage, you are hoping to play your best, and we just did not do that tonight,” Leonard said. “We made some uncharacteristic mistakes, but good teams like that make you do things that you’re not used to doing.”
Kelsey Bittecuffer as Rootstown’s leading scorer with 12 points, including three 3s. Elliott Smallfield was the only other Rootstown (27-2) player to reach double figures with 10 points. Germann hit three 3s of her own for her nine points. Nadia Lough had eight rebounds and six assists for the Rovers.
Rootstown’s season also include the program’s fourth consecutive league championship and the senior class set a school record with 81 career victories, including a sparkling 32-2 league record.