Girls Basketball: Buckeye Valley enjoying historic breakthrough season
Thursday, February 15, 2024
By Jarrod Ulrey
julrey@cbussports.com
Buckeye Valley’s Carlie Osborne drives to the basket during a game at Olentangy Berlin earlier this season. Photo: John Hulkenberg
Following a 56-19 victory Feb. 12 at home against Columbus Academy, the Buckeye Valley girls basketball team savored a net-cutting ceremony after capturing its first league championship since 2007 and just its third in program history.
The Barons are the second seed for the Division II tournament and could find themselves celebrating again a little more than two weeks from now if they can win a district title – something they’ve only done one other time, in 1993.
The fact that the program has come anywhere close to these types of accomplishments, though, wouldn’t have been predictable based on what took place as recently as two seasons ago.
With less than a month remaining in the 2021-22 season, Mike Daniels stepped down as coach and Todd Pennington was named interim coach.
Carlie Osborne, who was a sophomore and key player that season, left the team Jan. 13, 2022 – on her birthday – only to return a week later, after Pennington was handed the reins of the program.
The Barons lost eight of their last nine games and wound up 6-17 overall during the tumultuous season.
That background has made this season even sweeter for players like Osborne, who has helped lead Buckeye Valley to a 20-2 record that included a 14-0 finish in the Central Buckeye League.
“I quit midseason of my sophomore year,” Osborne said. “It was a rough time, but it’s been a dream for me for sure (this season). I’m just so proud of my team. We know how to work together and don’t get mad at each other. We just play our hearts out with our effort.
“Coming into this season, we didn’t get a lot of respect, and we weren’t ranked very highly by opponents in our league. We used that as motivation, worked every day in practice and we’ve had good days and bad days, but we’ve worked our butts off.”
Buckeye Valley’s strength lies in the all-around abilities of Osborne, as well as 6-foot-2 post player Ella Hazelrigg, who is one of the area’s top juniors, and a balanced offense.
And defensively, the Barons have continued to impress.
Since losing 50-39 to Amanda-Clearcreek on Dec. 30, Buckeye Valley has given up more than 30 points just one time.
During a 13-game winning streak to close the regular season, the Barons gave up an average of just 21 points.
“We came back with five solid players who had all played together for at least three years, and this year was supposed to be our max-out year, the year we were supposed to do something,” Hazelrigg said. “Everyone equally scores, contributes in their own way and has a role to play. We just have to keep playing together and knowing how we can play to go far in the tournament.”
Buckeye Valley’s Ella Hazelrigg passes with pressure applied from Olentangy Berlin’s Layla Merriweather in a game at Berlin earlier this season. Photo: John Hulkenberg
“(Osborne) has come a long, long way,” Pennington said. “I think she’s the best point guard around here, keeps us in control and she’s a stat stuffer, with four to five assists, rebounds and steals a game. This year she’s brought up her average to about 10 a game.
“Defense is where it starts. If you really study us, we’re only giving up about 25 points on the season, and we’ve doubled our opponents in points. In our league, we’ve held teams to less than that. We don’t do a lot of pressing. We do some, but our girls bought into playing good, halfcourt man defense and they just swarm. They don’t give an inch and they play hard.”
Pennington has previous coaching experience at the AAU, prep and college levels and had been coaching the Buckeye Valley eighth-grade team when he took over as varsity coach in 2022.
Last winter, the Barons went 15-8 overall and finished third at 10-4 in their final season in the MSL-Ohio Division.
Senior guard Emily Huston, who averages 8.6 points, and senior wing player Hazely Wagner, who averages six points and 4.5 rebounds, also have been key players throughout Pennington’s tenure.
Senior guard Molly Meier, sophomore guard Addison Graham and freshman guard Lina Wagner have been among the key contributors as well.
Buckeye Valley opens the district tournament Feb. 21 at home against 18th-seeded Hamilton Township and would advance with a win to play host to 16th-seeded Beechcroft on Feb. 24 in a second-round game.
The Barons’ biggest roadblock to winning a district title could be fourth-seeded Bloom-Carroll, which is 17-5 and would their opponent in a district final if the seeds play out.
The district championship game for Buckeye Valley’s bracket is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. March 2 at Central Crossing.
“We need to maintain our defense first and foremost,” Pennington said. “We’ve got to clean a few things up offensively, but if we can continue to keep working the ball, we’ve got a shot (at winning a district title).
“This year (the team has) really taken off. It’s been a joy to watch them play. We knew coming into the season we had a chance to be really good. We won 15 games last year, and a lot of people don’t (realize) it, but we’ve won 25 of our last 29 league games, so it obviously starts there as our first goal.”