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LOGAN — Unioto was in a similar situation just two years ago.
The Shermans met up with Sheridan in district play on Feb. 24, 2023, a game that proved to be an instant classic.
Trailing by as many as 14 in the second half, Unioto climbed its way back and tied the game late before Milee Smith etched her name into immortality, scoring a game-winning put-back at the buzzer to win a district title for the Shermans.
Fast forward to Wednesday evening.
CREDIT: Raymond Gleadle/SOSA
Unioto, with a more experienced Smith and plenty of other key additions, met up with the Generals once again — a team that still held the memory of that heartbreak — in a Division III district semifinal at Logan High School.
This time, Unioto didn’t need to wait until the final seconds to take care of business.
After being held to just three points in the first half, Smith went off yet again and dropped 19 points in the second half of play, going alongside a 16-point showing from Mya Hamilton to help Unioto pull off a 50-42 defeat — punching a third consecutive district final ticket.
“You always know what you’re going to get when you play Sheridan. They’re well-coached and they’re very fundamentally sound,” Unioto coach Jeff Miller said. “If you take a break, they’ll take advantage of it. We told our kids that we had to equal that intensity and that toughness. If we could do that, we’d feel pretty good. I thought our kids stood up to that challenge of being physically and mentally tough.”
The Shermans (20-4) struggled to possess the ball early, as four quick turnovers made way for Sheridan to get out to an early 5-1 lead after five quick points from Ava Heller.
But Unioto didn’t let its early woes stop them.
Hamilton got the party started for the Shermans with five points in the frame, allowing her team to work its way back to a 9-9 tie.
Unioto was finally able to reclaim the lead at the end of the first quarter as the ball was knocked away from a Sheridan ball-handler and into the hands of Magnolia Holbert. Just before the buzzer sounded, Holbert fired a full-court pass to Smith, who finished at the rim to give Unioto an 11-9 advantage.
“The end of the first quarter was huge. There’s a lot of people that aren’t in our inner circle that wouldn’t understand. But one of the things we talked about was we noticed in our scouting report that at the end of quarters, [Sheridan] likes to go high ball screen,” Miller said. “We had talked about how we were going to handle that, and our kids handled it perfectly. [Sheridan] went high ball screen, we ended up doubling it and they turned it over for us to get a layup out of it. As a coach, how happy are you when your kids listen to a scouting report and execute it? That was a huge play for us at the end of the first.”
The Shermans had settled in and found some momentum, and it continued after the quarter break.
They added to the lead right away as Smith dished the rock to Aidyn Danison, who drove to the basket for an easy two points. Then, they went back to playing long-ball, as Hamilton and Keyairah Beard knocked down back-to-back triples to give the Shermans a 19-9 lead with 4:22 left in the half.
Still, Sheridan (19-6) had plenty of fight left.
Following a timeout, the Generals went on a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to 19-16 before Unioto answered with four straight points — a trey from Hamilton and a free throw from Holbert. But Sheridan’s Ava Heller had the last shot of the quarter, and she successfully fired from the corner to cut Unioto’s lead to 23-19 at the break.
“We talked about it over and over, that this game was not going to be easy. They’re going to hit big shots. You’ve got to turn around and not let those big shots affect you,” Miller said. “It’s a next-play mentality. If they do something well and we mess up, we have to keep going. There’s another play to go, and when they did hit big shots, I thought our kids didn’t hang their heads and stayed at it, and I’m proud of how they handled that tonight.”
Heller’s shot at the end of the half did little to knock the Shermans off course.
Unioto found success in the first half through Smith sharing the ball and creating shots for her teammates.
But in the third quarter, she said it was her turn to put points on the board.
The University of Dayton commit took matters into her own hands to start the third, hitting a mid-range jumper before pulling up from outside and connecting, pushing Unioto’s lead to 28-19 with 5:12 left.
After Sheridan got some help, thanks to a triple from Addi Shaeffer, Unioto got an extra spark by way of Kendal Walker. The senior connected with a corner 3 to push the lead to 31-22 before grabbing an offensive rebound on the next possession and finding Smith inside for an easy bucket, pushing the lead into double digits and fueling the Shermans to a 35-25 lead at the end of the third.
“Coming into the third quarter, we were trying to find a way to get Milee more involved offensively. [Sheridan] was doing a great job on her and denying her the ball,” Miller said. “We moved her out to the point and tried to put her in some isolation situations where she was one-on-one. She got to the hole and hit some big shots, and then she had the play where she recognized the help coming from Kendal’s man, and she kicked it out to Kendal for that big shot.”
Unioto wanted to put things away as soon as possible, but for nearly the first three minutes of the final quarter, things came to a stalemate.
That’s when, once again, Milee Smith answered the call.
With 5:09 left, she received the ball at the top of the key, where she came off a ball screen, drove into the paint, drew a foul and watched a floater find the bottom of the net. She then sank the bonus free throw, giving the Shermans a 38-25 lead.
While the Generals fought until the final buzzer, cutting the deficit back to six points on two separate occasions, Unioto stayed on top the rest of the way and hit several crucial free throws in the late stages of the game.
As the final buzzer sounded, the Shermans celebrated together as they finished off a 50-42 victory.
“We turned the ball over and gave [Sheridan] some extra opportunities, but our execution was good enough,” Miller said. “It’s one of those things where it was good enough for tonight, but it’s something that we need to clean up here in the next couple days. We knew Sheridan wasn’t going to quit until the buzzer sounded. They kept coming at us, but we did enough to hang on.”
The Shermans were led by Smith, who, after putting up only three points in the first half, finished with 22 points and 12 rebounds on the night. Hamilton followed with 16 points and five boards. Beard chipped in with five points and five rebounds, and Walker contributed four points while grabbing six rebounds.
Unioto will advance to Saturday’s Division III district championship game, where they will meet up with Tri-Valley, a 43-15 winner over Steubenville.
That contest is slated for a 1 p.m. start at Zanesville High School.
“It’s nose to the grind, and we’ll get back at it. We’ve got a couple days to prepare for Tri-Valley. When you get to this point in the tournament, there’s no cupcake games,” Miller said. “Tri-Valley is a nice ball club, but again, we’re a pretty nice ball club, too. We’ll go back and we’ll get prepared, and I think our kids will come out and be ready to go on Saturday.”
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