Norwalk comeback falls short

ELIDA — The ultimate nightmare scenario. Facing tradition-rich Toledo Notre Dame in a Division III regional semifinal Wednesday, the Norwalk girls basketball team had everything go wrong. The Truckers committed 17 turnovers in the first half and fell behind 17-4 to start the game at the Elida Fieldhouse. Leading scorer and top player, senior Trinity Lazzara, took an inadvertent hand to the face and suffered a cut on her eye midway through the third quarter and was not cleared to return. And yet with 90 seconds remaining, Norwalk had a chance and trailed by just two points. "If Trinity was going to be out of the game for whatever reason, with the responsibility we put on her shoulders, that was not going to be a good situation for us," Norwalk head coach Kyle Brubaker said. "But when things are down, this group just gets a little tougher." But after a three-point attempt rimmed in and out, the Eagles went to work on the clock and got just enough down the stretch to hold off the Truckers for a 35-30 win. Notre Dame (15-10) will face Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary (20-5) for the regional championship at 3 p.m. Saturday. The Truckers close out one of the more successful seasons in program history with a 19-7 record. "We're proud and thankful for this team," Brubaker said. "This group of seniors and underclassmen is continuing to change the way people are thinking about Norwalk basketball, and we're just going to keep building on this." After coming all the way back from the 17-4 deficit to tie the game at 24 going into the fourth quarter, the Truckers were unable to grab the lead. The Eagles started to work the clock, then got a basket from Violet Snyder with 6:17 left for a 26-24 lead. Norwalk junior Emmie Leber was fouled and missed two free throws. However, she got her own rebound and went up for two points to again tie the game with 5:07 left. But as it did to start the game, Notre Dame drilled two massive 3s from Rakayla Grant and Brooklyn Armstead around a score from Jo Jackson. That gave the Eagles a 32-28 lead with 2:33 left in the game. Leber scored again for Norwalk with 1:27 left, but Notre Dame had no intention of shooting the basketball again. The Truckers still had four fouls to give before the Eagles could shoot free throws. But Notre Dame was able to burn almost an entire minute off the clock before the Truckers put them on the free-throw line with 35.4 seconds left. Karys Clark then split the free throws for a 33-30 lead, but a 3 from Leber was off the mark with 22 seconds remaining. Again, the Eagles were able to use nine seconds before Norwalk fouled them with 11.9 seconds to go. Notre Dame then missed both free throws, only for Snyder to grab the rebound despite being surrounded by a host of Norwalk players. She was then fouled with 10.8 seconds left and made them both for the final margin. "We were trying to give ourselves a little time to get a steal, but we were also yelling from the bench for a foul and not getting it," Brubaker said of the final minute-plus. "That's a situation we've been in a handful of times, and sometimes we struggle to get the read when it's called for." Armstead and Clark made two 3s to start the game as Norwalk struggled to handle the basketball. After Lazzara made it 6-4 with 5:35 left in the first quarter, the Eagles went on an 11-0 scoring run in just 1:25 of game time to make it 17-4. However, the Truckers were able to close the quarter with consecutive baskets from Leber and Jo Jackson to make it 17-8, and then Jackson opened the second quarter with another score down low to draw the Truckers within seven. "I think we were able to kind of rally the girls a little bit and settle them down," Brubaker said. "When we told them they had 17 turnovers at halftime, they were shocked. You can't win at the regional level that way. "Combine it with a night where it felt like we had a lot of shots go in and out, and it was a tough formula. We told the girls it would be a game of scoring runs, but we didn't expect a start like that." Norwalk continued its comeback when it trailed 18-10. CJ Bennett split two free throws, then Jackson scored twice in the key to pull within 18-15 with 1:47 left in the half. Notre Dame then got a big basket inside from Kendall Teamer with just three seconds left in the half to go up 20-15. Teamer then scored the first four points by driving to the rim to start the third, and it appeared Norwalk was again in trouble with a 24-15 deficit less than two minutes into the second half. However, the Truckers answered by scoring nine straight points in a 3:31 stretch. That included five points from Alyssa Gruhlke, including a 3, and a free throw from Leber that made it 24-22. Audryn Ott then tied the game with 1:16 left in the third. During the run, Lazzara was looking to come down with a long outlet pass when she took the inadvertent poke to the eye in front of the Norwalk bench with just under four minutes left in the third. "We just stressed trying to keep them calm," Brubaker said. "And I think because of some of the things we've been through in the second half of the season, they had belief in themselves. "We shook off some of that and got back to the game plan. We didn't change anything; we just started executing better." Jackson scored 10 points with six rebounds for Norwalk. Gruhlke had eight points, five rebounds, and three assists, while Leber added seven points and seven rebounds. In Brubaker's two seasons, Norwalk is 41-10 with the program's first league title and a third district championship. Over the past four seasons, the Truckers are 81-21 with a pair of regional appearances and the league title. Seniors this season included Lazzara, Ott, Delaney Illuzzi, and Reagan Mooney. "The seniors were a great group, and the underclassmen also deserve credit," Brubaker said. "Because they could have taken the attitude that they have another year or two ahead of them, but it was obvious they were playing for their seniors. "Obviously it stings, especially in a game like this where if things happened to go our way, we win. We're hurt, but we're all proud of our group. We need to get better as a coaching staff and a program, but we feel like we're building and going the right way." NORWALK (19-7) Alyssa Gruhlke 3-0—8; CJ Bennett 0-1—1; Audryn Ott 1-0—2; Emmie Leber 3-1—7; Trinity Lazzara 1-0—2; Jo Jackson 5-0—10. TOTALS 13-2—30. TOLEDO NOTRE DAME (15-10) Kallie Thames 2-1—5; Brooklyn Armstead 3-0—9; Karys Clark 1-1—4; Rakayla Gant 1-1—4; Violet Snyder 1-2—4; Kendall Teamer 4-0—9. TOTALS 12-5—35. Norwalk 8 7 9 6 — 30 Notre Dame 17 3 4 11 — 35 Three-point FGs: (N) Gruhlke 2; (ND) Armstead 3, Teamer, Clark, Grant.