HOT START … Montpelier guard Jessi Bumb drives to the hoop in the first half at North Central. Bumb scored 10 points in the first quarter to help the Lady Locos jump out to a 22-15 lead. (PHOT BY RICH HARDING, STAFF)
By: Nate Calvin
PIONEER, OHIO-A win earlier in the week guaranteed Montpelier at least a share of the BBC championship. With a chance to make history Saturday afternoon, the Lady Locos delivered with a 57-35 win at North Central.
The historic part for Montpelier is the win wrapped up the first outright girls basketball league title in school history. Montpelier shared the 1999 NWOAL championship with Wauseon and last season they shared the BBC title with Edon and Stryker.
Montpelier started the game blistering the nets as Jessi Bumb hit two field goals and two triples in the opening quarter to give Montpelier a 22-15 lead.
The Locos were 9/13 from the field with four makes from downtown led by Bumb who had 10 points in the quarter.
North Central did their best to keep pace as they were 6/10 shooting led by six points from Madison Brown and a three-pointer from Lauren Balser.
Montpelier continued the hot shooting in the second quarter with Ariel Page scoring twice down low and after a triple from Ali Repp the lead had ballooned to 29-17 at the 5:51 mark.
Brown answered with a bucket for the Eagles, but Page would score the next six points for Montpelier and Bumb would go coast to coast for a layup at the buzzer to make it 39-23 at halftime.
The Locos finished the half 17/27 shooting with five treys while North Central cooled off by going 3/13 in the quarter and 9/23 for the half.
Play was a bit ragged in the third quarter as Montpelier was just 2/11 from the floor with four turnovers and North Central went 1/12 and turned it over five times.
Despite the shaky third quarter Montpelier was able to add to their lead and took a 45-27 lead to the final quarter.
The Locos regained their offensive rhythm at that point as they scored the first six points of the quarter with two field goals from Page and Chelsea McCord added one to make it 51-27.
Montpelier finished the afternoon 25/49 for 51% with six treys while the Eagles were 13/48 (27%) and committed 14 turnovers.
Page topped the scoring for Montpelier (17-2, 11-0 in BBC) with 18 points and Bumb added 13. Brown led had seven field goals and four free throws to total 18 points for North Central (7-10, 4-6).
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Montpelier 22 17 6 12 57
NC 15 8 4 8 35
Nate can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com