By SARAH CLARK

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LEES CREEK — Blanchester went scoreless for the first 7:24 of Friday night’s Clinton County tournament contest against defending champion Wilmington and fell into an 18-point hold the team couldn’t climb out of en route to a 61-38 Wilmington win.

Wilmington is now 1-0 on the season, while Blanchester falls to 0-1.

Wilmington will advance to the championship to take on host East Clinton 7:30 p.m. Monday. The Lady Astros defeated Clinton-Massie 46-29 in the second contest of the evening Friday night. Blanchester and Clinton-Massie will play for the consolation 6 p.m. Monday.

It took 2 minutes before Wilmington could light up the board, but the team then went on an 18-0 streak to take a big lead in the first quarter behind, Julie Earley, Andrea Gifford, Molly Hinton and Chelsea Earley.

“It took us a long time to warm up as well. We had jitters and nerves. No matter how much you prepare and how many times you win this tournament, you always come into your first game and you have those butterflies in you,” said WHS head coach Doug Rinehart. “We just looked at it and knew we had to do it on the defensive end if we couldn’t put the ball in the hole. We had a little spark, went on a run and when the shots weren’t falling outside we took it inside and took the ball to the rack.”

BHS head coach Jason Gray said his team picked up and played well despite falling in a 18-point hole and his team’s lack of experience. BHS started three freshmen.

“I expected that we were going to have some nerves going in. You get a bucket early and maybe those nerves dissipate, but we didn’t get anything early,” said Gray. “I thought after we relaxed and started playing, even though we were down 18-0, we played a pretty good ball game. They are still playing pressure defense with all those kids and we handled and it is a jump in levels for our kids. They played well the last three quarters.”

Wilmington’s Gifford lead all scorers with 17 points, followed by Chelsea Earley with 12 and Julie Earley with 10. BHS was led by Tori Richardson with 10 points, while Chelsea Wisniewski scored eight.

“Julie has come on a real hot streak. She is getting the confidence in her. She is doing really well as a sophomore and is really starting to shine. She is one of those young small girls but if you give her the chance she is going to light you up from the outside,” said Rinehart.

In the second quarter, BHS battled back and was able to cut the WHS lead to 20-7 at the start of the quarter. Hinton helped WHS surge forward after making a steal and taking it to the hole for two points, followed by Julie Earley putting up a rebound for two.

Wilmington took a 35-18 lead into the intermission.

“We did several different things defensively and some different attacks and pressures. The key thing was that we wanted to keep the ball out of their shooters hands and keep them from attacking on the inside. We have to go back to the drawing board because that was not one of our better efforts in the second half,” said Rinehart. “My girls are scouting on their own tonight. We are going to be right back at it. We aren’t satisfied by any means. We came here to win a championship. We brought the trophy with us tonight and we plan to take it home Monday night. All 10 of my players played and that was key to getting the good run there in the beginning. It takes all of us to win and that is the way we are going to do it all year long.”

Blanchester was able to put together some shots in the third quarter, but the early deficit was too much. The teams ended the third quarter with WHS up 45-29.

“I think a lot of it we got out of our system tonight getting the nerves out of those young girls. Come Monday night, they will know the routine and be ready to play and I think that will help us out a whole lot Monday night,” said Gray. “I was happy with the girls. Being down 18-0 is tough and they responded to it, came out and played the rest of the game well.”

SUMMARY

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BHS5182938

WILMINGTON — (2-3-ft-tp) J. Earley 5-0-0-10; Gifford 6-1-2-17; Hinton 2-0-3-8; C. Earley 3-2-0-12; L. Crowe 2-1-5; Butcher 1-0-0-2; Craycraft 0-1-0-3; Sodini 2-0-0-4.

BLANCHESTER — Young 0-1-0-3; T. Richardson 3-1-1-10; Weisflock 1-0-2-4; Wisniewski 3-0-2-8; Brooks 2-0-1-5; Rineair 1-0-4-6; Kuhnell 1-0-0-2.

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