Senecas power past Arlington, notch 3rd straight district title

WILLARD – Defense travels.No matter where Calvert has played its tournament games this postseason run, the saying is true. Mohawk, Arcadia and now add Arlington to the list of teams that struggled against Calvert's 2-3 zone.Saturday in a Division VII district final at Willard, the Red Devils shot just 1 of 24 from 3-point range and managed to score just 30 points as the Senecas pulled away for a 43-30 victory.It was Calvert's third straight district championship."I only watched one game of (Arlington) and that was a game against a man-to-man defense. I knew (Madison) Ernst was a good shooter, we knew (Mea) Alexander was a good shooter, we had their stats," Calvert coach Aaron Sheets said. "Our defense was really good tonight."I'm happy with the result. We knew what they were going to do. We weren't really scared of their big girls, we left the middle open a few times and they hit the shot, but we adjusted to that. We just try to take away your strengths and it worked pretty well again tonight."Sheets had told his players early on in the season that he really thought his team could win another district title – even after graduating the all-time leading scorer in Calvert basketball history in Alyssa Rishty.The confidence was there, and then the girls started to believe, which has shown in the play of the Senecas the past few weeks. Now, the Senecas have won another district championship."We knew we had to come in and play our 'A' game … as a team we knew we had to shut down their 3s and play hard defense," Calvert senior Kaleigh Concepcion said. "We knew some girls had to step up, make some plays, which Megan (Rombach) did tonight and I thought our guards handled the ball really well. Arlington really brought some pressure, but as a team, we knew what we needed to do."I knew from the summer we were going to be good, but in the summer without Alyssa it was definitely different. It was a learning curve. We had to learn a whole new style of play. We're running a lot more plays this year than just offensive sets. We had to work around that, but as a team we adjusted, and we've been playing really well. I honestly couldn't be happier. It's amazing being with this team."It was evident right away in the contest that Arlington (14-11) was going to struggle to score if Calvert had time to set up their zone in the half-court. The Senecas (18-7) built a 7-0 lead to start after a three-point play from Kate Coleman and then they ended the first quarter with a 12-3 advantage as Rombach set the tone with six early points.The Red Devils managed to score only one point for the first seven minutes of the game.Arlington chipped away a little bit in the second, getting within 19-11 at the half.The key to the game was in the third as Arlington got within21-17 after a Jada Smith bucket midway through the quarter, but the Senecas responded as Sofia Lee splashed a triple and then knocked down a jumper. Calvert ended the period on an 8-2 spurt. Down just 10 to begin the fourth, Arlington still was in the thick of things until a quick 5-0 burst from Calvert as Carleigh Meier scored a layup and Mya Steyer drilled a trey gave Calvert a 35-21 advantage, which was insurmountable."I'd like to see how many of those 3s we missed were wide open, I mean many of them were contested I thought. They run a good 2-3 zone like our boys team does, and that's the reason they've won this district three years in a row," Arlington coach Jimmy Nicholson said. "They're active, have good athletes and they're just big enough inside. We're not a big team to begin with, but we have some 3-point shooters, including two of them that made over 40 this year, but didn't knock them in tonight. When you go 1 of 24 from 3 you're not going to win too many of those games."Alexander paced the Red Devils with eight points, while Ernst added seven."I told the girls after that we haven't had a winning season in a few years, so we'll take 14 wins," Nicholson said. "It's a lot more fun to win than lose, that's for sure."Jada Smith and Mea Alexander have played all four years, and Rachael Fox joined as a junior, so they've been right with us for a lot of ups and downs. They really helped us turn the program around, and I'm super thankful to have those two for all four years at a time when nobody wants to play girls basketball it seems like. We'll miss them … that's a lot of points; it's about 75% of our scoring are those three."Rombach paced the Senecas with 15 points, while Concepcion chipped in nine and Coleman ended with seven.Up next for the Senecas is a matchup with second-ranked Ottoville (21-4) Tuesday night at Bluffton University at 8 p.m."We just have to keep playing together," Concepcion said. "It's really important to stick together and trust each other … it's a big part of our game. We just have to buy-in to what coach is telling us and what we're telling each other." Calvert 43, Arlington 30Arlington (14-11): Mea Alexander 2-4-8; Madeline Hartman 2-2-6; Alexis Greiser 2-0-4; Allie Settlage 0-0-0; Madison Ernst 3-0-7; Jada Smith 1-3-5; Raeleigh Bower 0-0-0. Totals: 10-9-30.Calvert (18-7): Sofia Lee 2-0-5; Kaleigh Concepcion 2-4-9; Megan Rombach 5-5-15; Carleigh Meier 2-0-4; Grace Wood 0-0-0; Kate Coleman 3-1-7; Mya Steyer 1-0-3. Totals: 15-10-43.Arlington&emsp;&emsp;3&emsp;&emsp;8&emsp;&emsp;8&emsp;&emsp;11&emsp;&emsp;– 30Calvert&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;&emsp;12&emsp;&emsp;7&emsp;&emsp;10&emsp;&emsp;14&emsp;&emsp;– 433-point goals: Arlington 1 (Ernst); Calvert 3 (Lee, Concepcion, Steyer)Foul shots: Arlington 9-14; Calvert 10-21Turnovers: Arlington 12; Calvert 14