By: Nate Calvin
PAULDING, OHIO-Trailing 23-22 going to the fourth quarter, Napoleon looked like a team with plenty of experience in high pressure situations by outscoring Bryan 18-5 to pull away for a 40-28 victory.
A McKendry Semer field goal and a free throw from Delilah Taylor kept the Lady Bears in front 26-24 before Napoleon began to take over.
Caely Ressler, who had 12 points in the quarter, put the Wildcats on top to stay by burying a three with 5:43 left.
Taylor Strock extended the lead to 29-26 with a bucket and then it was Ressler again hitting from long range to make the score 32-26 at the 1:30 mark of the fourth quarter.
The Wildcats then put the game away at the free throw line by going 8/9 in the final quarter.
Bryan started the game strong by jumping to an 8-2 lead led by four points from Shallyn Miley and a triple from Semer.
Following a Napoleon timeout, Ressler would score two straight field goals to cut the Bryan lead to 9-6 after one quarter.
Neither team could find their shooting touch in the second quarter, but Bryan got a field goal from Miley and another trey from Semer to stretch the lead to 14-8.
Napoleon would end the half on a 5-0 spurt behind a three-pointer from Sophie Chipps and a bucket by Kalli Helberg to make the score 14-13 Bryan.
Napoleon was able to put up 11 more shots than Bryan in the first half but went just 6/24 shooting while Bryan was 4/13.
A Strock basket put Napoleon in front 15-14 to start the third Bryan’s Addie Arnold would hit a three to give the Bears the lead back at 17-15.
That led to another 5-0 scoring run by Napoleon with Strock going 2/2 at the line and Helberg connected from deep to give Napoleon the lead back at 20-17 as the back and forth third quarter continued.
Bryan responded with a 6-2 run to close the quarter as Miley hit a trey to tie the game 20-20 and then Bre Long recorded a three-point play to make it a 23-20 game.
Emma Pedroza would stop the Bryan run with a floater in the lane to make it a one-point game going to the final eight minutes.
Bryan was 9/29 (31%) from the floor on the night while the shooting improved for Napoleon in the second half as they went 7/16 to finish the game 13/40 (32%).
Semer topped Bryan (19-4) with 10 points and Shallyn Miley had 9. Ressler was 6/6 at the line on the night and dropped a game-high 20 points for Napoleon (22-1).
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Bryan 9 5 9 5 28
Napoleon 6 7 9 18 40
Nate can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com