New London clinches second straight FC title

MONROEVILLE — When Valery Henry heard the words, it took the New London junior a moment to respond. The Wildcats had just finished off a 51-34 win at Monroeville to wrap up a second consecutive Firelands Conference championship. New London finished just 1-21 in the 2021-22 season. It has just one senior this season, and lost its starting point guard to a season-ending injury three weeks ago. But still, the Wildcats have gone back-to-back and have won 27 straight FC games after the victory on Steve Moore Court inside the Monroeville Athletic Complex. "Just hearing those words … at times it's hard to believe, but this is also what we worked for," Henry said after a career performance. She finished with 17 points, seven rebounds and nine steals. "We did a lot over the summer and I truly believe it was a huge help for us to win this game today," Henry said. "It's not just one person. It takes all of us. It takes a team. Even Raeann (Mitchell). She's still as much a part of this as all of us." After Mitchell went down with a torn ACL injury on Jan. 11, the depth of the roster for New London (15-4, 12-0) went from six varsity players with experience to essentially five. And in Saturday's win over the Eagles (13-7, 10-3), NL head coach Eric Mitchell didn't sub as his five starters played all 32 minutes. "It's really big for us coming back after the injury, to do it not only with Raeann, but for her, too," said Madison Rowland, the lone senior on the NL team. "It's really good to be here again after the hard work we've put in over the years. "All five of us just have to work hard the entire time. It's a mindset. Our team shows everyone can score, and it can be someone else on any given night." The Eagles got the start they wanted. Julia White and Taylor Scheid hit two early 3-pointers to give their team an 8-5 lead. But Yetter scored the first seven points for the Wildcats to keep her team within range. Sophia Stieber then made Monroeville's third 3 of the first quarter to give her team an 11-7 lead entering the second quarter. But from there, the Wildcats flipped the script. Not only did they not turn the ball over in the second quarter after committing seven in the opening eight minutes, but they forced the Eagles into seven in the second as well. Trailing 13-9, the Cats went on a 9-0 scoring run as the post play of Gracie Thomas and Pailee Wilson took charge. They scored the first seven points of the run, including when Wilson rebounded a missed free throw by Thomas for an easy putback basket. Henry capped the run with two free throws for an 18-13 lead at the 3:52 mark. Grace Stieber answered with a big 3 for the Eagles, but it wasn't enough to slow the 'Cats. Henry answered with a 3 of her own, then scored on a steal and layup with 1:21 left in the half. Thomas scored inside with 1:03 left in the half, then off another turnover, Rowland made her only basket count. Her layup with 0.9 seconds left sent New London to halftime with a 27-18 lead. "You try to tell them to go out there and play loose, but I think you could see it early with the turnovers," Eric Mitchell said of Saturday's stakes. "Monroeville has a really nice team and this was a big game. We made some careless decisions and silly passes, and then they made some big shots early and you just thought, 'oh boy, here we go.' "But we settled in so well going into that second quarter, and I thought it carried over to the third. We didn't score, but our defense really allowed us to take the step we did later in the game." Henry made another 3 with 4:41 left in the third to put NL ahead 32-20. The Eagles cut the deficit to eight points a couple times, only for Yetter to this time score a back-breaking shot before the buzzer with 1.3 seconds left to push the lead back to 38-28 after three quarters. Again leading the charge, Henry opened the fourth with a three-point play for a 41-28 lead. The Eagles never drew closer than 11 points the rest of the way. "First, congratulations to Coach Mitchell and their team for their championship," Monroeville head coach Ryan Bohn said. "They do a great job, and especially with five girls right now. They've had a great season. We came out, took charge and won the first quarter, but we couldn't sustain it in the second. "It's where we lost the game with way too many turnovers, which give New London credit, they have great size and length. We weren't smart passing the ball at times, and they made us pay for it." Thomas finished with 13 points on 6-of-9 shot attempts and grabbed 12 rebounds for the Wildcats. Yetter added 11 points, while Wilson had eight points and nine rebounds. "I think the thing that helps our team is these girls don't care about these individual stats," Mitchell said. "What they care about is what does the score say under New London on the scoreboard. They are a special group. All of them. They will work. "Obviously those juniors, they've been winning for three years now, and Madison is one of those that got to experience the low of the lows with her sister. I'm happy as the lone senior she was able to experience that this year along with Emilee (Rowland) last year. But it says a lot to me about the character of these kids.They truly do care," Grace Stieber had 11 points for Monroeville. White added nine points and 11 rebounds. "This is definitely a good tune-up for the tournament," Bohn said. "They bring a lot of challenges with their size and they make it hard to rebound the basketball. I thought our girls did a nice job being scrappy with two key players down in the post for us. "We were playing give guards, and they did a nice job crashing the boards and trying to get second chances. But this game definitely gets you ready for the tournament, and we could see them again like last year." NEW LONDON (15-4, 12-0) Madison Rowland 1-0—2; Valery Henry 4-7—17; Olivia Yetter 5-0—11; Pailee Wilson 4-0—8; Gracie Thomas 6-1—13. TOTALS 20-8—51. MONROEVILLE (13-7, 10-3) Grace Stieber 4-2—11; Taylor Scheid 2-0—5; Julia White 4-0—9; Sophia Stieber 2-2—7; Grace Bohn 0-2—2. TOTALS 12-6—34. New London 7 20 11 13 — 51 Monroeville 11 7 10 6 — 34 3-point FGs: (NL) Henry 2, Yetter; (M) G. Stieber, Scheid, White, S. Stieber