TROY — Batavia had No. 2-seeded Urbana on the ropes.
After trailing most of the game — by as much as seven midway through the third quarter — the Lady Dogs used a furious 12-2 run that included back-to-back 3-pointers to give Batavia a 38-36 lead after three quarters of play. Macy McHenry’s layup pushed the Clermont County team’s lead to 40-36 to open the fourth quarter to cap a 14-3 advantage.
However, the Hillclimbers used its transition game to put together a 14-0 run in a span of 2:37 to eventually end Batavia’s season in a 58-48 Division IV Southwest District championship game Feb. 22 at Troy High School.
The Lady Dogs’ district runner-up season ends at 15-10. Urbana advanced to the Region 16 tournament at Vandalia High School.
“I felt we were in the game the whole time. As long as we are in the game, we’ve always got a chance,” Lady Dogs coach Ryan Ogletree said. “We just ran out of time today.”
The Hillclimbers led by as much as 11-4 in the first quarter, but the game was close throughout the first half. Batavia shot 10-of-23 from the floor to Urbana’s 11-of-18 mark, but the Hillclimbers knocked down two more 3-pointers than the Lady Dogs to help build a 29-23 halftime lead.
The action picked up in the third quarter when Chloe Bell hit 1-of-2 from the free-throw line, and Averie Layman’s putback closed the game to 29-26 with 6:55 to play in the third quarter. However, the Lady Dogs turned the ball over on back-to-back possessions and went 0-of-5 from the floor, while the Hillclimbers built their lead to 33-26 with 4:20 left in the stanza.
Ogletree’s timeout with 3:24 left served as a much-needed break for the Lady Dogs.
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