Prep girls basketball: Badin ousts three-time defending state champs

Years of futility against Alter High School’s girls basketball team have suddenly given way to a winning streak for Badin.

The Rams knocked off the Knights for the second time in three weeks Thursday night in a Division II sectional opener at Lebanon, having endured a string of 22 straight losses in the series before that.

And this 43-32 victory had some extra sweetness for Badin, which gave three-time defending state champion Alter its first postseason defeat since the 2014 state final against Millersburg West Holmes.

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“I don’t care what their record is. That’s a tough out in the first round,” Rams coach Tom Sunderman said. “They’ve got tradition. They’ve got history. They defend. They play a tough schedule. For us, it’s a very good win.”

Third-seeded Badin trailed only one time (2-0), but had to pull away from a 24-24 deadlock in the fourth quarter to subdue its Greater Catholic League Coed Division rival.

Emma Broermann’s three-point play with 7:18 left kicked off a game-ending 19-8 surge for the Rams (17-6), who will return to Lebanon to face fifth-seeded Franklin (16-6) in a 6 p.m. sectional semifinal Tuesday.

“It started to get close at some points, but I knew if we just kept working together that we could pull it off,” said junior forward Claire McCurley, who led Badin with 13 points and seven rebounds. “We had already beaten them once, and we just knew that we had to get ’em again because you don’t lose to Alter.”

The Rams got 7 points and five boards from Broermann, while Grace Larkin and Macy Harper had 6 points apiece. Larkin hit 5 of 6 free throws in the fourth quarter — Badin was 9 of 12 as a team during the last eight minutes.

To the surprise of nobody, the game was a bruising affair. Physical defense on both sides led to a lot of turnovers, 25 for the Rams and 21 for the Knights.

“Some of the turnovers we had were unforced. We had a lot of fumbled passes, kicked balls,” Sunderman said. “Alter had a good defensive plan. We made some adjustments at halftime, and I thought our girls did a good job with that. When we got to the rim, we scored. The problem was getting there.”

Kala Gillis scored 14 points and Kourtney Klug marked 7 for No. 9 seed Alter. The Knights put up 40 or more points just nine times this year.

“We struggled offensively all year, and that was no different tonight,” Alter coach Chris Hart said. “I thought our kids played hard like they have all year. They played their butts off. We had a good game plan. We didn’t get a lot of breaks.

“Badin’s physical and strong, and they have quite an inside presence. It’s what we expected. It’s what we prepared for.”

The Knights’ 6-17 campaign has been somewhat shocking because of the program’s long tradition of championships, though this year’s team only had two seniors, Riley Priest and Marie Gross.

“We were very inexperienced this year and we believe that we have some pieces coming, so we’ll see how we do next year,” Hart said. “We do our very best to get our kids ready. We prepared the same today as we did the last four years. Nothing’s different about that.

“Other than our very first team meeting, we did not one time this year talk about the past. This is a brand-new group. It’s not fair to those kids to dwell on the past. We really just focused game to game.”

Badin continues to win with defense. The Rams own the best defensive scoring average (37.8) in the GCLC.

“We’ve tried to focus on forgetting our mistakes and just making the next play,” Sunderman said. “We’ve been in a lot of close games this year. The good part is we’ve come out on top in most of them.

“I think we’ve got the tools. If we play together, we can beat anybody. That’s what I really think. It’s going to take two things, defending the basketball and taking care of the basketball.”

Here’s a twist on how difficult it is to win on the road: Badin is 4-6 on its home court and 13-0 outside of Mulcahey Gym this season.

Alter 5-7-10-10—32

Badin 10-6-8-19—43

ALTER (6-17): Katie Kernan 1 0 2, Kala Gillis 6 0 14, Riley Priest 1 1 3, Kourtney Klug 3 1 7, Marie Gross 0 1 1, Julia Paley 1 1 3, Caitlyn Carruth 0 1 1, Grace Eisenhauer 0 1 1. Totals: 12-6-32

BADIN (17-6): Emily Maher 2 1 5, Grace Larkin 0 6 6, Macy Harper 3 0 6, Emma Broermann 3 1 7, Claire McCurley 5 2 13, Anna Cantwell 1 0 3, Jaelynn Scowden 0 1 1, Mickayla Kowalski 1 0 2. Totals: 15-11-43

3-pointers: A 2 (Gillis 2), B 2 (Cantwell, McCurley)

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