By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

About the only thing that was missing from Saturday’s regional championship win for the Rootstown girls basketball team was a director yelling: “READY, SET, ACTION!”

In scenes made for a movie, the Rovers made history with their first-ever Final Four berth with a series of clutch plays and a last-second, game-winning layup for a senior star who returned to the team mid-season after recovering from a torn ACL over the summer.

The final score: Rootstown 37, Smithville 36.

How the Rovers got there featured 2 minutes of thrilling basketball, with a back-and-forth sequence of plays that had fans on both sides erupting.

After Smithville took a 29-28 lead on a basket by Aly Wickens, the Smithies’ first lead in the game since 7-6 with 1 minute left in the first quarter, the Rovers quickly regained the lead on a layup from Nadia Lough and a transition layup from Kelsey Bittecuffer to give the Rovers the 32-29 lead.

Smithville’s Madi Singer hit the next clutch shot, burying a 3-pointer from the top of the arc to tie the score at 32-32 with 1:53 to play.

Rootstown’s Kelsey Bittecuffer (10) hugs teammate Colbie Curall during Saturday’s postgame celebration.
Tom Nader/Portage Sports

The score would sit there for about 1 minute, until Rootstown called a timeout to set up a side out-of-bounds play from the 28-foot line.

On the set, the Rovers’ Coblie Curall circled around to try to get behind the defense for an easy layup. However, it was defended well and Bittecuffer’s pass appeared to be underthrown a bit as it headed for the left low block of the key. However, Curall leapt into the air and over the outstretched arms of her defender, and tipped the ball to Lough, who was in position on the right block to catch the ball and put in the layup.

The highlight reel play broke the tie and gave Rootstown a 34-32 lead.

Moments later, Singer had another answer, hitting a turnaround jumper in the middle of the key to tie the score again at 34-34.

On Rootstown’s next possession, Lough was fouled under the basket with 49.2 seconds to play. She missed her first attempt, but sunk her second shot for a 35-34 Rovers lead.

Following a Smithville timeout, the Smithies perfectly executed a backdoor play, with Wickens finding Singer cutting off the right wing to change the lead once more and place Smithville on top 36-35.

Another Rootstown (26-1) timeout, this time with 14.6 seconds left, again set up a sideout from the 28-foot line. The Rovers’ initial play, a quick strike play that was designed to be a handoff from Lough, who received the inbounds pass, to Elliott Smallfield, who threw the inbounds pass and followed it for the handoff, never materialized because of Smithville’s defense.

After Smallfield was shut off, she passed the ball back to the top of the arc to Bittecuffer. Lough repositioned herself to the low block and Bittecuffer delivered a precise bounce pass through traffic to Lough, who turned to her left, dribbled around a double team on the baseline, jump-stopped and had to jump backward to get an angle and released a layup that went off glass and through the net as she fell backwards off-balance for the 37-36 lead.

Smithville called its final timeout to draw up a play to go the length of the court. The play resulted in a deflected pass out of bounds near half court with 3.5 seconds remaining. Following another Rootstown timeout, the inbounds pass was stolen by Colbie Curall, who darted in front of Wickens to swipe the ball and seal the game.

The win advances Rootstown to Friday’s state semifinal against Fort Frye. The game is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Claymont High School.

“Right now, I am speechless, to be honest,” Rootstown head coach Joe Leonard said. “We knew this game would be a fight and different from the first time we played them (47-34 Rootstown win on Jan. 11), because they are a great team and they have a great coach. We knew they would make some adjustments and they did, but in the past, these would be the games that our program would struggle to win, but not tonight.”

Despite the late-game pressure, Leonard said he sensed a calm within his team in all of the late-game huddles.

“Even when we were down with 14 seconds to play, the girls were locked in and calm,” Leonard said. “They were not panicked. They were ready. They believed the entire time they were going to win the game.”

In describing the final offensive play that Lough scored the game-winning basket, Leonard smiled before answering.

“I am just so proud for Nadia. You could write a movie about her journey to get back onto the court this year,” Leonard said. “She has meant so much to this time, this program and this community during her four years as a player, so for her to have the ball in her hands with the regional final on the line, that’s exactly what you want. We have watched her do amazing things for a long time, and we have come to expect that she will always deliver and she did again tonight.”

Lough finished with a game-high 22 points, scoring 60 percent of the Rovers’ output, on 9-of-15 shooting. She also had a team-high six rebounds. Bittecuffer added eight points for the Rovers, while Curall had five rebounds and four assists.

Neither team shot particularly well from the field, with Rootstown shooting 14-of-42 (33 percent) as a team and 5-of-27 (19 percent) outside of Lough’s performance. Smithville shot 12-of-38 (32 percent).

The Smithies (23-4) were led in scoring by Singer, who had 17 points (5-of-15 from the floor and 6-of-9 from the line), as well as seven rebounds, with Wickens adding 10 points and six rebounds.