Lady Trojans win state!
DAYTON —Finally, at long last, storied and basketball tradition-rich Portsmouth High School is a city of champions once again.
Only this time, it's the Lady Trojans taking home hardware —the coveted gold trophy from the Ohio High School Athletic Association.
That's because, on Saturday in the OHSAA's first-ever Division V girls basketball state championship, Portsmouth put the final exclamation point on a historic season —and captured the program's first-ever state title.
The Lady Trojans, against Norwayne's Bobcats, took the lead for good halfway through the opening quarter —and rolled to a 53-38 victory inside the University of Dayton Arena.
That's right.
The win was years in the making —and began when most of the nine Lady Trojans were in junior high.
One of the team's two seniors, repeat all-Ohioan Daysha Reid who has signed to play collegiately at Georgetown in Kentucky, was in the fifth grade when she thought the dream of a state title would in fact be realized.
The Lady Trojans finished their most historic season at 27-1, setting a school record for most victories in a single campaign —and tying the Portsmouth boys team of 1988 for most wins in a single year, as those Trojans took home the most recent of four state titles on that side.
Portsmouth played in its second all-time state tournament, and second consecutive—having lost last year's Division III state semifinal against Ottawa-Glandorf.
This season marked the first for the OHSAA to expand girls and boys basketball tournament divisions to seven, and the Lady Trojans took full advantage in being Division V.
The only loss was at Division I power Cincinnati Mount Notre Dame 54-47 in early February, as the Lady Trojans' touted schedule against much bigger programs paid dividends all year.
The Lady Trojans swept through the Ohio Valley Conference's 14 games, won back-to-back Southeast District and regional championships, and defeated Fairland for a third time this season in the Division V state semifinals.
Amy Hughes, who completed her seventh season as PHS head coach on Saturday, won her first state championship —having guided Ironton there two full decades ago, prior to Portsmouth last season.
Hughes has constantly stressed defense the past two seasons, and it indeed won the championship as the old saying goes.
The Lady Trojans forced 24 Bobcat turnovers, including 15 in the opening half in building a 27-14 advantage.
Portsmouth pushed the lead 22 with 3:25 left in the third quarter —and never let the lead dip into single digits for the entire second half.
Four players scored in double figures for the Lady Trojans, paced by two-time Southeast District Player of the Year Sienna Allen with 17.
Allen is a six-foot junior, and the University of Dayton is one of her leading collegiate basketball scholarship offers.
Her fellow first-team all-Southeast District honoree Reid added 10, and all-district second-teamers and sophomores Hayven Carter and Keke Woods went for 11 points apiece.
The Lady Trojans shot 51-percent on 22-of-43, which was lowered actually by the 2-of-10 from three-point range.
But no matter, because the Lady Trojans' tenacious defense did its job— as per usual.
Norwayne shot just 32-percent on 12-of-37, including 5-of-16 from three-point range.
Norwayne, which defeated powerhouse Columbus Africentric in the state semifinal, was playing in its first-ever state tournament.
The state championship was the final game for both the five-foot and seven-inch Reid and the six-foot and three-inch Savannah Cantrell.
Complete coverage of the Lady Trojans' triumph for the state championship will appear online at www.portsmouth-dailytimes.com, and in this week's print editions of The Portsmouth Daily Times.
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