Pandora-Gilboa Eliminates Ridgemont 

Pandora - The Pandora-Gilboa girls basketball team won the sectional finals by a score of 53-23 over Ridgemont in a four quarter effort that took the entire team playing their best. With this victory it is the first sectional championship since 2014 and the first playoff win since 2015.

The first quarter belonged to the juniors as most of the year has been scoring wise for PG. Savannah Knueven led the way with 11 points, Ava Huffman had three, and Nevaeha Alvarado  had a basket combining for the Rockets 18 points.  Ridgemont would not go down easy however, Kylie Shreve, one of the two seniors for Ridgemont, led her team with five points. The score after one quarter of action was 18-12 PG advantage.

The biggest story coming out of the first quarter was PG's leading scorer, Ava Huffman, picking up three fouls. This would cause her to not play in the second quarter and the Rockets would need to find other scoring options.

The Golden Gophers knew that PG would look to Savannah Knueven who only averages 0.4 points less than Huffman. To try and take her away Ridgemont went to a "box and one" defense keeping someone on Knueven at all times. This proved to be a very good strategy as PG struggled to adjust and only scored four points all quarter.  Knueven had a breakaway layup off a steal and Lauren Teders was the first non-junior to score.

Luckily for Pandora-Gilboa their defense would prove to be an even harder challenge to overcome. The Golden Gophers were unable to score for the entire quarter. Pandora-Gilboa won the turnover battle 22-19 (unofficially) and a big part of that help was Savannah Knueven who ended the game with seven steals. At halftime it was a 22-12 Rockets lead.

Quarter three was a return to normalcy for each of these offenses who would end the quarter tied 10-10. Ava Huffman doubled her first half production and got to double digit scoring with 5 points in the quarter. Maddie Rutschilling made hir first basket, a long ball from the team's best statistical shooter. PG made 8 three pointers all game compared to Ridgemont's none. 

Laney Elsasser was the spark for the Golden Gophers in the third quarter. She ended the game with nine points and had her first eight points in the penultimate quarter. She also opened up freshman Aubrie Overly for an easy floater for her last points of the game. The score after three was 32-22 however, the forth quarter would be all PG.

Ava Huffman opened the quarter with seven consecutive points, four of which came off of a steal and fastbreak where Knueven assisted her. Savannah Knueven would end the game with six assists. PG never looked back from there as Huffman would have nine forth quarter points and her junior running mate in Knueven would have seven. Ridgemont would only have one point, a free throw from Laney Elsasser. The Rockets would win the quarter 21-1 and end with the final score of 53-23.

With this win the Rockets will head to the Elida Fieldhouse to compete in the district finals for the first time since 2014. That year, PG beat McComb in the sectional finals 57-38 before falling in the district semifinals to Crestview 56-42. Crestview would make a run all the way to the regional semifinals before losing to Holgate.

Pandora-Gilboa will have revenge on their mind no matter what the result of Fort Jennings vs. Waynesfield Goshen in the sectional finals is. PG lost 50-45 in double OT to Fort Jennings in a game without Ava Huffman where Knueven had 19 and senior captain Ciel Wise had 16. Also, Fort Jennings ended PG's season last year 51-50 in the sectional finals.

If Waynesfield Goshen takes care of business it would be a rematch of their December 10th battle with the Rockets that ended as a 52-45 WG victory.  The Pandora-Gilboa ties with Waynsefield Goshen are very apparent as well. Three out of four coaches for the Tigers used to coach at PG. Head coach Brent Farley was an assistant for the boys at PG, Joe Bradic took the boys team to the Schottenstein Center for the only time in school history and ended with a 232-171 record at PG, and  Jessica Leidtke was a PG girls head coach who went 67-95 in her seven years coaching. Liedtke was also the coach who in 2014 brought the last sectional title to The Launchpad before today. 

The Rockets will play next in hopes for advancing to the district title for the first time since 2010, when they won in 45-38 fashion over Arlington. 

Head Coach Cody Pelton and the four seniors for the Rockets: Lauren Teders, Maddie Rutschilling, Ciel Wise, and Devin Draper have to be credited for helping to establish the culture now carrying this PG team to a 13-10 record and the district tournament. PG was coming off of a 3-20 season when Coach Pelton took over the program and now finds himself coaching in the district finals.

PG (53):

Lauren Teders 4

Maddie Rutschilling 5

Nevaeha Alvarado 2

Ava Huffman 20

Savannah Knueven 22

3 pt. 8: (Knueven 4, Huffman 3, Rutschilling)

TO: 19

Ridgemont (23):

Aubrie Overly 5

Laney Elsasser 9

Kylie Shreeve 5

Brilynn Rudasill 4

3 pt. 0

TO: 22

PG 18 4 10 21

RM 12 0 10 1

Read more articles by Chase Dettrow