Pickerington Central defeats Magnificat in Ohio girls basketball showdown

PICKERINGTON, Ohio – Pickerington Central senior Berry Wallace has become used to being the focal point for opposing defenses this season.

But despite getting double-teamed nearly every time she entered the paint on Saturday, the 6-foot-1 forward still managed to score a team-best 16 points to lead the Tigers to a 57-54 home victory over  Magnificat in a hard-fought contest the two Division I squads.

Not only did the University of Illinois recruit make 75 percent (six of eight) of her field goals and all three of her foul shots, she also played excellent defense in the post.

“I have a big target on my back every game this year, but I like the pressure of being the main target of other teams, because I’m going to be playing college basketball next year where everyone is playing at a high level,” said Wallace, whose squad improved to 5-0 overall. “I’m a senior captain and I want to have the ball in my hands in the biggest moments of our biggest games and take shots at the end of games, so I can set an example for our whole team and do my best to lead my team to big wins.”

Central coach Chris Wallace said his daughter has stepped up to the challenge of being a team leader on and off the court thus far this season, as the Tigers have started undefeated against a meat-grinder of a schedule that includes a 53-52 victory over defending Division II state champion Purcell Marian on Dec. 2.

Berry scored what held up as the game-winning point on a free throw against Marian, and she made both of her foul shots to give Central a 54-48 advantage over Magnificat with just 47.6 seconds remaining.

“Berry’s the calm in the storm for us, and I want the ball in her hands when it matters the most,” said Chris Wallace, whose squad was the Division I state runner-up last season. “Berry had made 85 percent of her foul shots coming into this game, and she made 95 percent of her foul shots over the summer. That’s unusual for an athlete with her size, but she’s gifted with good hands and she works hard on free throws.”

Junior guard Rylee Bess also made two free throws to put Central ahead 56-51 with 30.3 seconds left and made the second of two foul shots to make it 57-51 with 14 seconds remaining.

Bess, who finished with 11 points, has made 87 percent of her free throws this season.

“I tried not to think about the game being on the line when I went to the foul line,” Bess said. “I just went up there and focused on each shot the same way I would if we were up 20 points, and so the pressure didn’t bother me.”

Central’s swarming defensive pressure did bother Magnificat during one key stretch of the second quarter, during which the Tigers went on a 16-0 run to turn a five-point deficit into a 31-20 lead with 2:01 remaining before halftime.

“This is no slight to Pickerington Central, but I thought we were the tougher team for most of the game,” said Magnificat coach Danny Gallagher, whose squad dropped to 3-2 overall. “But when they switched to zone, it got us unsettled. We started to take bad shots, miss shots we normally make and throw the ball around. When we turned it over, they were able to score in transition off our mistakes.”

The squads had traded leads 10 times up to that point, before Central switched to a swarming 2-3 zone, which the Tigers had barely utilized during their first four contests this season.

“I’m a defensive-minded coach, so I put in a lot of stuff so we have it when we need it,” coach Wallace said. “I don’t want our team to be comfortable with just one defense. I want us to be good at multiple styles, so can go to something else when we need to.”

Bess made two 3-pointers to spark Central’s 16-0 run.

“I was just trying to give us some energy, because our team feeds off of scoring, and those 3s gave us a big boost,” Bess said.

Freshman guard Zoe Coleman also came off the bench to score four points and a total of five Tigers scored during that decisive stretch of the game.

Kennady Gordon made two 3-pointers and finished with 10 points, Blossom Wallace scored eight points and Jaden Tucker had four points to help lead the Tigers.

“We have a lot of different weapons and a lot of girls who help us in different ways besides just scoring,” coach Wallace said. “Blossom is probably our best defender, but Kennady takes a lot of pride in defending, too.”

Ameera Jenkins and Faith King also each scored two points, as Central’s bench players outscored Magnificat’s bench players 8-2 overall.

“Berry Wallace is an all-around great player, and (Bess) is a really good shooter, but Pickerington Central has a lot of other girls who are freak athletes who made plays all over the court for them,” Gallagher said.

The Blue Streaks demonstrated why they are considered one of the top Division I teams in the state by rallying from a 47-37 deficit at the end of the third quarter to make Tigers’ fans sweat in the fourth quarter.

Julia Hall and Katie Maryo each scored a game-high 20 points power Magnificat offensively.

Hall scored seven of her points in the first quarter and Maryo scored 10 points in the second quarter to help the Blue Streaks jump out to a 20-15 advantage with 5 minutes remaining in the first half.

Rounding out Magnificat’s scoring were Reese Roggenburk (six points), Sofia Wilson (4), Brynn Roggenburk (2) and Gemma Wichmann (2).

“(Maryo) and Hall are great shooters, and we certainly didn’t want to give up 20 points to each of them,” coach Wallace said. “But Magnificat’s a great team that we expect to see in the state tournament, and you can live with their first two options scoring well if you can take away their third option.”

Maryo scored eight points in the fourth quarter, including a 3-pointer to pull Magnificat within 52-48 with 2:35 left.

Hall scored seven points in the fourth quarter, including a 3-pointer that cut Magnificat’s deficit to 54-52 with 38.5 remaining and a 3-pointer that made it 57-54 with 2.5 left.

Maryo was 6-for-10 from the field with four 3-pointers and made all four of her foul shots.

Hall, who already has received three Division I college scholarship offers, went 8-for-12 from the field.

“I hate losing but I liked our effort, because we never quit fighting,” Gallagher said. “Not many teams drive more than two hours to play this team at their place, but we did it to get ready for the end of the year, because we want to be playing our best basketball in the tournament.”