Southern's Katie Kellogg dribbles against Waynedale's Kylie Geiser on Saturday in a Div. VI district final at Girard. (Photo by Michael Burich)

GIRARD — Southern Local’s girls basketball team walked into halftime of Saturday’s Div. VI district final against Waynedale down one after falling behind by 10 in the first quarter.

The Indians felt like they had weathered the storm and could feel a momentum shift but the Golden Bears went on a tear to open the third quarter and put an end to the Indians’ perfect run with a 56-38 victory.

“Coming out of halftime we gave them a little momentum and we had to find ways to get back into it, but I think they contested shots at times that made us feel uncomfortable. At times we made them uncomfortable but we didn’t do it enough. That’s just the nature of being a competitor,” Southern coach Mike Skrinjar said. “They ran beautiful sets offensively and were physical defensively.”

No. 5 seeded Southern ended its winningest campaign in school history at 24-1 and was going for its first district title since 1995. No. 7 seeded Waynedale moved to 18-7 having knocked off an undefeated Eastern Ohio Athletic Conference champion in the tournament for the second straight year.

“In the tournament you just never know and we play a really tough schedule,” Waynedale coach Rick Geiser said. “We’ve knocked off five league champions now but still had our own ups and downs. It was a bit of a roller coaster ride. I think the schedule being as tough as it is preps us for this game.”

Waynedale finished fourth in the Wayne County Athletic League behind Norwayne, Doylestown Chippewa and Dalton. All four were playing on Saturday with only Dalton not winning. Southern was the last EOAC team standing.

The Golden Bears will meet No. 2 seed Canton Central Catholic on Wednesday in the regional semifinal at Uniontown Lake. Canton Central beat Mapleton 54-38 in the other district final held at Girard on Saturday.

Like she has done all year, freshman Katie Kellogg led the Indians with 22 points, five rebounds, four assists and five steals. She scored 10 in the first quarter and was a big reason why Southern was able to pull out of a 19-9 hole to get it to 22-21 with several chances to take the lead at the end of the first half.

The Waynedale coach came away very impressed by the level of Kellogg’s talent at such a young age.

“She’s going to score between 2,500 to 3,000 points in her career,” Geiser said. “She’s got such a bright future ahead of her because she can do it off the dribble. I thought we would be able to wear her down a little bit and she just kept going.”

Her sister Haylee Kellogg was playing in her final high school game along with Indian seniors Allyssa Shroades, Makenna Jones and Maddy Jones.

“Katie has meant a lot to this team, not only as my sister but as a teammate,” Haylee Kellogg said. “She brings the points, she brings the assists and she brings the hype. She helps hold the team together.”

Haylee Kellogg said she hopes this team set a standard for younger kids in the program to follow.

“Games were so much fun but practices were hard and that is what we wanted,” Haylee Kellogg said. “You know just today we had a send off at the school and there were so many little kids out in the parking lot who were either part of the youth girls team or junior high team. They’re coming up and they just look up to us.”

Waynedale went on an 9-0 run to start the third quarter and eventually put the nail in the coffin of Southern’s season when Natalie Clever’s three with 3:57 to go made it 46-30. Clever finished with 15 points on a night when the winners made 11 threes.

Shroades was held to no points by the swarming Golden Bears’ defense and had trouble defensively keeping up with the speed of their ball movement.

“It was kind of hard to keep up with them because they were moving the ball really fast,” Shroades said. “We were not used to that. We were pretty sure they were going to do this but we were trying our best.”

Freshman Kalayah Crute added eight points, eight rebounds and three steals for Southern.

Skrinjar thinks the foundational building blocks have been set and he thinks the program can continue to build on this special season.

“It old them in the locker room, ‘You’re breaking through right now’,” Skrinjar said. “You’re breaking down barriers. You’re in a district championship game. You had not been there in 30 years. The ones below you all see that. They see what can be done and what more can be done. They want to continue to get back here. What they invested this year was not easy and has to be replicated and added to. That’s the greatest thing about competitive sports. What do you do when this happens? You’re a runner-up? What do you do next year to get back?”

Notes

– The Indians scored 1,634 points to their opponents’ 651 this season.

– Every player on the Golden Bears’ team wore knee pads and nearly all had pink shoes on.

­- Waynedale’s victory tradition is doing a ‘jump around’ session in the locker room after the game. The coach said the team tries to get as many people involved in it as possible because it serves as a good team building activity.

– At one point in the first half, Waynedale’s Jorjia Pessinger went down for a loose ball which was called a jump ball. As she went to stand up a ref was standing on her hair and it took a while for the official to realize he was doing so.

– Waynedale shocked an undefeated Columbiana 40-35 in the sectional opener last season.

– Katie Kellogg is averaging 23 points per game.

SO: 12-9-6-11 — 38

WA: 19-3-17-17 — 56

SOUTHERN LOCAL SCORING: Katie Kellogg 6-8-22, Allyssa Shroades 0-0-0, Kalayah Crute 2-4-8, Makenna Jones 1-0-2, Hailey Maines 0-0-0, Haylee Kellogg 0-0-0, Raelea Carosiello 0-0-0, Emma Boyle 1-0-3, Maddy Jones 1-0-3. TEAM TOTALS: 11, 12-15: 38.

WAYNEDALE SCORING: Izzy Matter 3-0-7, Aubrey Troyer 2-4-9, Mya Spitler 0-0-0, Brooke Compston 2-1-5, Jorjia Pessinger 4-0-11, Kylie Geiser 1-1-4, Madelynn Baney 1-0-3, Bella Parry 1-0-2, Natalie Clever 4-3-15. TEAM TOTALS: 18, 9-15: 56.

Three-point goals: Southern 4 (Katie Kellogg 2, Emma Boyle, Maddy Jones, Waynedale 11 (Pessinger 3, Clever 4, Baney, Geiser, Troyer, Matter)