Blue Devils drop rival Rams, claim N10 crown

CAREY — Do you believe in miracles?Just a few weeks ago, the thought of Carey winning a Northern 10 Athletic Conference championship seemed like a thought that had drifted away.The Blue Devils sat two games behind league leader Colonel Crawford after a second loss to the Eagles.Needing major help, Carey got it, and seized an opportunity that doesn't come around very often.The Blue Devils limited what Upper Sandusky did on offense, clamping down on the Rams in a 34-27 championship-clinching win Saturday."After that second Crawford loss, we were two games back," Carey coach Keith O'Flaherty said. "We talked in the locker room about the possibility that we were out of it. We said we needed a miracle. Thanks to Buckeye Central, Seneca East and Mohawk, we got that miracle."Initially Carey (19-3, 11-3 N10) claimed its share of the title when time expired. About 15 minutes after the final buzzer sounded, Mohawk upset Colonel Crawford (17-5, 10-4) to set off another celebration inside Carey's gym.After all, the Blue Devils were outright league champions, the first league title for Carey since 2016.Not bad for a team that finished tied for second-to-last just two years ago."I think it means a lot," Carey senior Rylee Row said. "I've been playing for the last four years. I sat the bench on varsity, but have been playing varsity since my sophomore year and this means the world to me."From where we started with our sophomore year to now is such a big achievement."Against Upper Sandusky (15-7, 9-5), it was the same M.O. for the Blue Devils — defense. The Rams made just 11 of 30 shots including 2 of 16 from 3. Upper Sandusky committed 16 turnovers."We didn't shoot well," Upper Sandusky coach Jerry Vent said. "It came down to that. Holding Carey to 34 points should win us the game. We didn't shoot the ball well. That's not on our players. I didn't get us enough good looks. I'll take responsibility on that."It was a close game early with Carey leading 10-7 after one quarter following a bucket from Kynlee Phillips.The Rams went scoreless the final 2:48 of the quarter and that carried into the second quarter. While Upper Sandusky got good looks, nothing seemed to fall for the Rams. The drought carried another 4:02 of the quarter — 6:50 total — before a score from Madison Hart.In that time, Carey went up 15-7 before Hart's bucket. But her tally seemingly got the Rams going for a moment. Hope Morris scored and after a tally by Riley Yost for the Blue Devils, Bryn Cundiff drilled a 3 to bring Upper Sandusky within 17-14 at halftime."Defense is what we talked about in the locker room before the game," O'Flaherty said. "We always stress defense. We tell them defense wins championships. Offense wins games, but defense wins championships. That's the first thing I wrote on the board today. We had to play a spectacular defensive game today."But again, another lengthy stretch without points handcuffed the Rams. This time it was 7:21 without any points. Two scores from Yost and another by Phillips pushed Carey up 23-14, but Upper Sandusky finished the quarter strong.Buckets from Grace Walton and Addy Newman sliced the Carey advantage to 23-18."Defensively, we were up in their face," O'Flaherty said. "I challenged the girls that we had to play up in their face defensively. That way, the shooters can't get a look. The girls responded."Despite again grabbing momentum, the Rams couldn't get anything going early in the fourth quarter. Upper Sandusky went 4:49 without points, giving the Blue Devils enough time to put the game away.Kelsey Bursby scored twice while Rachel Reinhart knocked down a shot to open a 30-18 lead with 3:45 to play. Walton finally got going with five points, but it wasn't nearly enough. Upper Sandusky got within 30-25, but Bursby and Row each scored to seal the win — and ultimately a league championship."We couldn't get Grace loose enough times," Vent said. "We couldn't get Addy loose at all hardly. That's on me to make sure we have some looks to get them some shots. We didn't have that today. When we did, we just didn't shoot the ball well."Walton paced the Rams with 10 points and six rebounds. Cundiff scored five points and Newman tallied four."We started out the season 0-3 in the league and 3-4 overall," Vent said. "The fact that we were sitting at 15-6 and 9-4 in the league and had a chance to play for something today is remarkable to be honest. That's a credit to our girls."Yost's nine points topped Carey. Row added seven points and nine rebounds while Phillips also scored seven points.The Blue Devils have a lot of goals yet ahead — they are the No. 1 seed in the Fostoria district that starts this week — but Row, Bursby, Phillips and Ella Clinger are the seniors who will be able to look back years and decades from now and remember they were apart of a league championship at Carey.No matter how it happened."That's something we're going to remember," Row said. "We look at the one for volleyball and see our number up there. We know we did that. The one for basketball now we will look up at that and remember that time we won it. We really worked hard for it."