MAC boys’ girls tournament roundups

Rol Rushman’s recollections will have to carry far and wide to find a more productive timeout than the one he requested during Thursday afternoon’s MAC tournament semifinals.

At the time, his Leyton High School Warriors were trailing Garden County 7-2 midway through the first period.

The play stoppage worked: LHS exploded for the game’s next 14 points, and the Warriors (7-4) moved on to Saturday night’s title game with a handy 47-29 romp in Sidney Middle School Gymnasium.

“There were a few adjustments we needed to make,”Rushman said. “I am happy with the way the girls responded out of the timeout.”

Leyton’s biggest issue was trying to stop Lady Eagles senior center Tileen Sullivan, who accounted for Garden’s first seven points.

“We needed to deny the ball to her more than playing behind her,” Rushman said of defending Sullivan. “We were playing without Kelsey Waite, who might sometimes have that role. Rachael Ernest stepped up and guarded her, and the other girls played well defensively to get offensive opportunties. Sometimes we pushed the ball a bit more than we needed to, but Kaitlyn Berner was making her shots and we didn’t want to take the ball out of her hands.”

Berner capped a 10-point first half with a basket that gave Leyton a 23-11 halftime command.

“We just let Kaitlyn shoot whenever she wanted to,” Rushman said.

Leyon had several players in foul trouble, so Rushman substituted freely in the second half. Still, LHS was able maintain its double-digit advantage, leading by 19 points late.

“We wanted to keep the starters from getting their fourth fouls,” Rushman said. “I’m proud of the way the bench came in and played for us.”

Berner led the way for Leyton with 16 points, Rachael Ernest adding 15.

Leyton played without center Kelsey Waite, who is ill.

“She might not be available for us Sautrday, either,” Rushman said.

Leyton will meet upstart Creek Valley at 6:30 p.m. Saturday for the girls’ title, with Garden County tangles with No. 1 seed Potter-Dix in the third-place game at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Girls MAC semifinals

Leyton 47, Garden County 29

LEYTON (7-4)

Houk 1 0-1 2, RErnest 6 3-3 15, Berner 7 2-4 16, Rushman 0 0-1 0, Lukesh 3 0-0 6, KErnest 3 0-0 6, NCruise 1 0-1 2. Totals 21 5-10 47

GARDEN COUNTY (5-9)

Sullivan 5 3-5 13, Paisley 1 0-0 2, Davis 5 1-9 11, McLauglin 0 1-2 1, Stegman 1 0-0 2. Totals 12 5-6 29

Leyton 12 11 12 12—47

Garden 7 4 8 10—29

Team fouls – Leyton 19, Garden County 15