Anna’s Makenna Pettus shoots as Bethel’s Karley Moore defends during a Division III district semifinal against Bethel on Saturday at Northridge High School.
Luke Gronneberg | Sidney Daily News
Anna’s Taylor Poeppelman drives during a Division III district semifinal against Bethel on Saturday at Northridge High School. Poeppelman led the Rockets with 17 points.
Luke Gronneberg | Sidney Daily News
Anna’s Brenna Cobb shoots as Bethel’s Kerigan Calhoun defends during a Division III district semifinal against Bethel on Saturday at Northridge High School. Cobb scored 14 points, including a 3 in the final minutes to put the squad ahead for good.
Luke Gronneberg | Sidney Daily News
DAYTON — Anna is familiar with enduring struggles in regular season and benefiting from the experience in postseason play.
Even under first-year coach Randy Huber, the recipe has cooked the same again.
After a bad first quarter, the Rockets contained Tipp City Bethel the rest of the way and rallied to earn a 33-29 victory in a Division III district semifinal on Saturday at Northridge High School.
It’s the third district final berth in four years for Anna, and will be the second time in three years the squad has advanced after suffering at least seven losses in regular-season play.
“We put a lot on this game, because a lot of people early in the season were telling me as a first-year coach, ‘You know, Coach, it’ll be a rebuilding season, how are you going to approach it?’ And early on, it was. We do have nine losses,” Huber said.
“But we have a board in the locker room that tracks our goals. In the second half of the year, there’s a lot of dots marking our goals being met each day.”
The Rockets (16-9), which have won 10 of their last 13 games, advance to face East Clinton (23-2) in a district final this Saturday at Springfield High School.
The district final berth didn’t look likely in the first quarter against Bethel. Rhyan Reittenger, a senior point guard, flew by Anna defenders and scored nine points to lead a 16-7 scoring edge.
“We’ve been in bad spots before and have come back from worse,” Anna senior guard Taylor Poeppelman said, who scored a game-high 17 points, said. “We knew that wasn’t our best quarter. But we were only down nine, so we could come back. We knew we had it in us.”
Bethel, which was the sectional’s No. 1 seed, played several strong nonconference opponents, including Fort Loramie, Tri-Village, Ottawa-Glandforf and Huber Heights Wayne.
But Anna is even more thoroughly battle-tested. The Rockets had matchups against five Midwest Athletic Conference teams, West Liberty-Salem and Bethel’s Three Rivers Conference rivals Miami East and Covington in nonconference games, among others.
The Rockets lost twice to Loramie and Russia in Shelby County Athletic League play and split with Botkins and Jackson Center, which were scheduled to face the Raiders and Redskins in Div. IV district semifinals on Monday night.
“It’s so good for us,” Poeppelman said of the tough SCAL and nonconference games. “It’s hard getting a lot of losses, but we know it helps us in these games. We know that we’ve been in a lot of tough situations before, playing Loramie, Marion Local and Minster every year. Knowing that no matter what happens, we’ve seen it all and can play against any team.”
The experience showed, as Anna clamped down defensively the rest of the night against the Bees (20-4).
Reittenger managed five points (and one field goal) the rest of the night, and senior guard Karley Moore, who was named Three Rivers Conference player of the year, was held to nine points, seven below her average.
Bethel’s defense didn’t make it easy for Anna, though, so the comeback progressed slowly.
Anna finished the second quarter on a 7-3 run to pull within 21-17 at halftime. The teams traded points to a 23-19 early in the third, then Poeppelman hit one jumper and then a 3-pointer to give Anna its first lead of the night at 25-23 with 3:45 left.
“We just had to start playing as a team,” Poeppelman said. “They had quick girls on their team, and they read our eyes well and read every pass. We just had to know that, make the safe pass and make them play defense. They longer they play defense, the more tired they get, and we could make some shots.”
The Rockets led 27-25 at the end of the quarter, but a jumper by Poeppelman was the only points the squad managed for the first six minutes of the fourth, while Maddie Montgomery made two baskets for Bethel to tie it 29-29.
After a missed shot by Montgomery, Anna raced down and worked the ball to senior guard Brenna Cobb, who hit a 3 from the left wing with about 1:25 left to give Anna a 32-29 lead.
“She stepped up huge for us,” Poeppelman said. “She didn’t have a lot of points, but that shot was huge.”
The Bees had several possessions in the last 85 seconds, but couldn’t get a shot to fall. Poeppelman grabbed a rebound and drew a foul in the final 30 seconds, then followed with a free throw to push the advantage to four points.
Cobb finished with 14 points. She also defended Reittenger; Huber credited Cobb for her stellar defensive effort the last three quarters.
“She’s a little rat on defense. I call her that, and the kids love it,” Huber said. “… (Reittenger) got to the point, you could tell, she wanted to stay off her a little bit. She went a little wider, didn’t try to attack her up the gut as much. Brenna got a couple of steals, and that changed her look on the game.”
Huber also credited Poeppelman for hitting key shots, including two 3s in the first quarter, which kept the squad in it.
“Toward the end of the season here, she’s been getting a little more consistent,” Huber said. “Her knee from last year, she just doesn’t have that strength. The longer we keep her in the game, her shots can start to get shorter and shorter. But tonight, boy, she had a little extra energy, and she was hitting them.”
The Rockets, which were the Dayton D-III sectional’s No. 5 seed, will now face East Clinton on Saturday, with a district championship and regional berth on the line. The Astros finished 21-5 last year and won a district final before losing to Cincinnati Purcell Marian in a regional semifinal.
The Rockets won district titles in 2020 and 2021 as well. Poeppelman said she’s excited to get the chance at another this year.
“It feels great,” Poeppelman said. “It’s just a blessing.”
