Archbishop Hoban holds on for 51-48 win over Green to claim fourth straight district title

PERRY, Ohio – When Green’s hail mary fell just a few feet short in the final seconds of the OHSAA Division I district final, Archbishop Hoban could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

The Knights held on for dear life down the stretch and pulled off a 51-48 win to take home the district crown.

With Hoban leading 50-48, Rylee Bennett went to the free throw line for a pair that could have given the Knights a four-point lead. But she missed the first one. And then she took a second, aimed, fired and connected on the second to make it 51-48.

“I knew if I missed the first one, I was going to make the second one,” Bennett said. “I have confidence in myself. I work on free throws every day at practice, so I know that I am a pretty decent free throw shooter.”

Green's Sydney Shocklee inbounded the ball to Cam Croston, who got it back to Shocklee with just two ticks left. Shocklee cocked her right arm and let a shot fly from just below the opposing free throw line. It soared through the air and ended up in the hands of teammate Jenna Slates in front of the basket as time expired.

“I was just looking at it and hoping it didn’t go in,” Hoban senior Emma Rasmussen said. “At the end, the game turned out in our favor and a win is a win.”

Early on, it looked like the game wasn’t going to come down to the final moments.

Hoban got off to a fast start, scoring the game’s first eight points and held an 18-9 lead after one quarter, a nine-point margin that was still present at halftime, 29-20.

“(We had a) super slow start,” Green head coach Alicia Manning said. “You can’t do that with them. They apply so much pressure on you and you can’t come out flat and you can’t come out with low energy.”

After the teams played to a draw for the first six minutes of the third quarter, Hoban went on a 6-0 run to end the period and take a 15-point lead into the final eight minutes.

But Green wasn’t going to go away. After erasing a 10-point deficit to force overtime earlier this season in a loss against Hoban, the Bulldogs started the fourth quarter on an 8-0 run as Riley Chmielewski hit a 3-pointer and Shocklee followed with a basket and a 3-pointer to cut the Hoban lead to 43-36.

“We told them it was going to be a game of runs,” Hoban head coach Pam Davis said. “We wanted to start off fast but we knew they weren’t going to quit.”

And then after Bennett scored later in the quarter to give Hoban a 49-40 lead, Green scored eight of the next nine points, including a 3-pointer by Chmielewski with 11.2 seconds remaining to make it 50-48.

Hoban was able to get the ball inbounds and run off seven seconds before Bennett was fouled and went to the line for her free throws. Her last free throw gave her a game-high 17 points.

Hoban’s offense became stagnant for portions of the final quarter as the Knights were just trying to slow the game down and limit possessions in order to take home the win.

“We were trying to slow it down to take time off the clock,” Davis said. “Then I thought we got hesitant and tentative and then when we had driving lanes, we didn’t take it.”

Mackenzie Edingburgh had 14 for Hoban, while Kennedy Arison scored seven and Makenzie Grant had six.

Senior Mallory Oddo finished her Green career with a team-high 15 points, while Shocklee had 14. Slates scored seven and grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds.

This is the fourth district title in a row for Hoban (16-9), who will face Midview in the regional semifinals at Medina on Tuesday, February 28th at 8:00 p.m.

The season didn’t come without its trials and tribulations for the Knights, however.

After losing two players from last year’s team to graduation and having another four players transfer, Hoban faced adversity from the beginning. But for the seniors who did stick around – Rasmussen, Bennett and Arison, this title might mean just a little more.

“It means the world,” Rasmussen said. “People underestimated what our team is. You look at our record and people think we are an average team. For us, winning this makes a big statement.”

As for their head coach, she was soaking in the moment after the game.

“This was probably one of my sweetest district titles ever,” Davis said. “These kids are resilient (and) they never gave up. My seniors have four Division I district titles.”