West Holmes' 'refuse-to-lose' mentality leads to district title

A decade of district hardship fell to the wayside Feb. 28 when the West Holmes girls basketball team felled top-seeded Carrollton 49-45 to capture a Division IV district championship.

For coach Lindsy Belden and especially this senior group that has been to the district title game the past three seasons, only to come up short, this experience was well worth the wait.

“We finally got here,” Belden said of reaching regional play. “This kind of win takes a true team effort, and we had everyone step up and make key plays that won’t stand out in the scorebook but were huge in putting us in position to win. We got great minutes from everyone, and everyone contributed.”

As a way of reiterating its will to win this game, the team adopted a slogan heading into the contest against the district’s top seed: refuse to lose.

If senior Briar Cline had anything to say about that slogan, it would remain intact, and she had a lot to say about the outcome of this one.

Time and time again, it would be Cline stepping up in a big moment to help West Holmes stay calm and collected, and most importantly, within grasp of creating the upset.

Not once but twice, West Holmes (12-12) built solid leads, only to watch Carrollton (16-9) storm past it and threaten to seize control of the game.

The first time was at the end of the first quarter, where, after growing early leads of 5-0 and 10-3, Carrollton showed why it was the top seed.

Emma Shafer and Kylie Ujcich would take over, Ujcich scoring Carrollton’s first seven points, Shafer capping off a terrific run by netting the next 10 to give Carrollton a commanding 17-10 lead.

West Holmes teetered on the brink of disaster, but Cline wasn’t going to let that happen, refusing to lose.

Scoring nine points during a 14-3 run, Cline led WHHS back to a 24-20 lead, which was capped off by Mari Patterson’s two free throws.

Refuse to lose was in full throttle action.

Leading 24-21 at the half, WHHS had momentum, but after Cara McMillen dropped home a pair of free throws to open the half, the Warriors went on a 7-0 run in the span of 40 seconds to again push the Lady Knights against the wall.

Again, West Holmes fought back, led by senior Zalina Proper, whose ballhandling against Carrollton’s frantic trapping half-court defense helped stabilize the Lady Knights.

Leading 33-32 with time winding down, Cline penetrated and hit Lilli Brown with a perfect feed for a 35-32 WH lead.

From that point on, it was a battle as the two teams went toe-to-toe. Shafer’s two jumpers gave the Warriors the lead. Cline answered with a trey.

Cline’s two free throws pushed West Holmes out to a 40-38 edge, but an Ivy Bishop free throw and Ujcick’s drive put Carrollton back on top.

Proper hit a long triple, but Ujick answered with an and-one at 3:54 to put the Warriors back on top 44-43.

When Shafer hit a free throw with 1:43 left to put Carrollton up 45-42, few expected it to be the Warriors’ final point, but West Holmes was about to show why refuse to lose wasn’t simply words.

With 1:23 to play, Cline’s and-one put the Lady Knights back on top 46-45. She split a pair of free throws with 36 ticks left for a two-point advantage, but McMillen grabbed a monster offensive rebound off the second miss, allowing Cline to go to the line again, where she split two free throws for a 48-45 lead with 29 seconds left.

“In a game like this, every little thing matters, and I thought we did a great job of doing the little things we needed to do to win this game,” Belden said. “We valued every single possession, and we had to.”

Carrollton had one last gasp, but a long shot from behind the arc hit the front iron, and it was almost poetic that Cline would grab the board with five seconds to play and go to the line to hit a free throw to ice the game away.

West Holmes had scaled the mountain, refused to lose and felt the joy of heading off to regionals for the first time in a long time.

“We’ve been in games like this all year, and that helped us,” Belden said. “They’ve blown a lot of teams out, and I think that gave us an advantage in a close game.”

Belden said her team has shown toughness in experiencing these types of close games this season, and it paid off in this one.

“It helped us weather the storm and survive,” she said. “We didn’t feel intimidated playing the one seed, and we took the ‘refuse to lose’ to heart.”