Photos by Steven Wright | Greene County News
Cedarville senior Molly Mossing (10) gets in the paint for a layup near the end of the first half of Saturday’s Division IV sectional tournament game at Monroe High School. The Indians defeated Cincinnati College Prep 62-21 to advance to the next round.
Driving into the lane for Cedarville is sophomore Audrey Shepherd (12).
Cedarville senior Taylor Butts (1) drives and kicks to a teammate on the perimeter.
The Indians didn’t have to get too much outside shooting in the win, but Cedarville junior Ayden Rodgers lined up this attempt in her first game back in the lineup.
Cedarville freshman Katelyn Reed slashes to the basket for a layup.
MONROE — Cedarville overcame a slow start on a chilly Saturday morning to handle Cincinnati College Prep 62-21 in Division IV girls sectional tournament play at Monroe High School.
The Indians, seeded third in the district, trailed for much of the opening quarter to the Lions, who were the nine-seed and only had two wins this season, before starting to warm up from the chilly conditions outside.
“I’d say we came out really flat and expecting to win and not necessarily coming in playing like we know how to play together,” head coach Hailey Peters said.
CCP led 8-4 just over four minutes in while getting to the basket for easy lay-ins with ease. Molly Mossing kickstarted Cedarville’s offense with strong post play to quickly get in front for the first time, but things still didn’t come easy afterward for the Indians.
It wasn’t until Cedarville suddenly applied full court pressure after going up by four that they began the process of wearing down the Lions.
“At halftime we basically looked at our seniors and said, ‘is this how we want to end our season?’” Peters said. “This is not the way any of them wanted to go out, so we knew we needed to fix how we were playing and make a change and we came out strong in the second half.”
Cedarville (15-8) scored 19 of the first 21 points coming out of the halftime break to take control and be able to breath that their season wasn’t coming to an abrupt end.
“The second half was the team that I coach and that’s how we typically play,” Peters said. “I was proud of that half. I’ve stressed all week in practice we have to come out strong against every single team in tournament time because anyone can win.”
Molly Mossing scored 22 points to lead Cedarville. Hannah Peterson and Audrey Shepherd both added eight and Katelyn Reed had a season-high seven, all of which came in the second half.
“Audrey did well in the the second half and I was happy with our bench,” Peters said. “We were able to still hold our lead with them on the floor which was a good thing.”
CCP only had five players available for the game, one of which didn’t suit up until a few minutes until tip time. Jaida McGee scored 19 of her team’s points.
Cedarville will next play No. 7 Ripley Union Lewis Huntington at 6 p.m. on Thursday back at Monroe HS.
Contact Steven Wright at 937-502-4498 and follow on X (formerly Twitter) @Steven_Wright_.
