Sydney Shocklee's big game helps Green defeat Stow 39-30 to in Division I sectional final

UNIONTOWN, Ohio – Before Thursday night’s OHSAA Division I sectional final, Green sophomore Sydney Shocklee was in the coaches office and stated she was ready.

Was she ever.

The 5-foot-10 Shocklee knocked down five threes and scored a game-high 21 points to help lead Green to a 39-30 win over Stow.

“I didn’t get to play last year as a freshman because I was injured,” Shocklee said. “So, this was actually my first tournament (game) ever of high school basketball and I wanted to remember it on the right track.”

Shocklee scored the first four points of the game for Green and then ended the first quarter with a 3-pointer as time was winding down. She then added two more 3s in the second quarter and Green led 21-11 at the half. She also started each of the final two quarters with a 3-pointer.

“In practice this whole week I have been shooting really well,” Shocklee said. “Five threes is a lot for me, I have been consistently shooting the three ball really well though.”

Green never trailed in the game, but Stow made it interesting in the fourth quarter with an 8-4 run that cut the Green lead to four with 1:45 left.

But one of Green’s biggest issues over the last half of the season – free throw shooting – became its best friend.

Shocklee stepped up and knocked down a pair on a 1-and-1 and then after senior Nina Shaffer got a steal, she followed suit to give Green a 38-30 lead.

After a steal by Jenna Slates, it was senior Mallory Oddo who stepped up and split a pair of free throws with 45.2 seconds remaining.

“It was a little mental lapse that happens sometimes,” Green head coach Alicia Manning said. “I told them to relax and have confidence. It’s funny because we would have those games (where we didn’t shoot well) and then we would go to practice and stress it so much and they would hit 100 percent in practice and I was like ‘ok, now you are just messing with me trying to get my blood pressure up during the game.’”

Those defensive stops at the end of the game come from endless practices where the players on defense are forced to do pushups if they give up scores on two straight possessions and then they must run if they give up a score on a third straight possession.

“They know how important that is so we put that in our practices where they have to think through and know we have to get this stop,” Manning said. “It ended up paying off in the end, we got some steals that led to our free throws.”

Getting to the end with the lead came from getting off to a hot start for Green. When Manning put together their game plan for Thursday night, the top item was to get off to a good start. Green did just that, leading 12-2 after the first quarter.

“We always have keys to win and that was number one on the line,” Manning said. “Especially in tournament time, you’re playing against really motivated teams. More so defensively was our focus because some of those first quarter jitters show up and your shot’s not always going to fall. I was pretty happy we were making shots too.”

In the game, Slates also became the program’s most prolific rebounder in a season, as her sixth rebound of the game in the third quarter gave her 221 for the year. She finished with 11 rebounds and now has 226 on the season.

“As a sophomore, it feels good to have my name up on the board,” Slates said.

Green, the No. 3 seed in the Northeast super district and the highest seed in the Northeast 2 bracket, moves on to the district semifinals where they will face fourth-seeded Hathaway Brown at Perry High School on Tuesday, February 21st at 8:00 pm.

Photo gallery (photos by Jeff Harwell)