Girls basketball state championships: Alter proud in defeat, optimistic about future

Mar. 15—Two magical runs ended Friday in the Division IV girls state championship game.

For Bellevue, it was pursuit of the first state title in school history.

For Alter, it was as close to a Cinderella run as a program with such storied history might be able to have.

When the final horn sounded, the Lady Red were the ones celebrating a 40-29 victory in front of 3,234 fans at UD Arena.

"I want to congratulate Bellevue," Alter co-head coach Kendal Peck said to conclude the postgame press conference. "We've been scouting them since about 2013 when Kory (Santoro) started coaching there."

While the Knights have been to 10 final fours, Bellevue was playing in its first. Perhaps Santoro had previous teams good enough to reach this point, but Toledo Rogers — a two-time state champion and four-time final four participant that consistently pumps out Division I college prospects — consistently stood in the way.

"They've had a great program here for 12, 13 years running," said Peck along with co-head coach Christina Hart has coached five state champions, most recently in 2022. "This was kinda their year. They had three starters coming back, all all-district kids, so congratulations to them. This is an awesome accomplishment. Just getting here is awesome. Congratulations to them."

Meanwhile, Peck and Hart had a nearly all-new group to mold around star Maddie Moody, a 6-foot-1 senior broke the school's records for points and rebounds in a career while showing the next generation how to play the Alter way.

"I am so proud of what these young ladies accomplished this year," Hart said. "We had four letter-winners back from last year. One senior. Seven players with no varsity experience when we started the season, and we end up state runners-up. We're disappointed that we're runners-up and not state champions. Anybody would be, but we are so proud of what they accomplished all year long."

Alter vs. Bellevue Division IV girls basketball state final

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Alter students cheer during the Division IV state final on Friday at University of Dayton Arena. BRYANT BILLING / STAFF

As for the game, it was far from a work of art.

The Knights missed their first 19 shots from the floor and went to the locker room at halftime 1 for 21.

They were still in the game, trailing 13-6, thanks to their own defense limiting Bellevue to 4 for 19, but they never got play tilted in their favor for more than two or three possessions in either half.

That was despite the best efforts of Moody, who scored Alter's only field goal in the first half and started a 6-0 run that brought the Knights within six midway through the third quarter.

Bellevue 6-3 junior Kaitlyn Turinsky scored on a spin move in the lane to halt the spurt, and that was as close as Alter would get.

Turinsky was also a presence on defense, blocking seven shots, and finished with eight points and eight rebounds.

Ellie Freitag hit a 3-pointer to start the scoring in the fourth quarter and put Bellevue up 10, and the Lady Red led by as many as 12 before all was said and done.

Moody could only bring herself to half-heartedly lift the runners-up trophy in the air after receiving it from an OHSAA official after the game, but she held her head high in the postgame interview room after scoring 12 points and grabbing nine rebounds in her final high school game.

"It was so special," said Moody, who is signed to play at Northern Kentucky next season. "I mean nobody believed in us except for the people that were on the floor and in our bench. If you were to ask anyone, they wouldn't believe we would have gotten here, so the amount of love and gratefulness that I have for this group is insane because they are just a wonderful, amazing group of young ladies.

Alter made nine of 25 shots in the second half, but the damage was done in the first. The Knights ended up 10 for 46 (21.7%) while Bellevue made 11 for 33 (33.3%).

Junior Da'Shai Shepard scored nine points and grabbed seven rebounds while classmate Alina Overman had six points and eight rebounds for the Knights.

They also had contributions from first-year guards Izzie Arcuri, Grace Ireton and Mylee Toney in the state title game but were missing another freshman, Sarah Brand, who suffered a season-ending injury in the district championship game.

"I just kind of want them to keep working hard because this sets a standard," Moody said. "You want to be back next year and you want to be back in years going forward. So this sets a standard, and I just want them to keep working hard every day preseason and practice throughout the regular season just to continue to strive to get better and get back to UD Arena."

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