Sheridan, Cambridge have their eyes set on Columbus

THORNVILLE, Ohio — The first to 25 gets to The Schott; and we’re not talking about points.

The Sheridan Lady Generals and Cambridge Lady Bobcats will face off Tuesday night in the Regional Semifinals. Both teams enter the game with identical 23-3 records, and if Tuesday night’s winner can clinch win number 25 in the Regional Finals, they’ll punch their ticket to the State Championships in Columbus.

Sheridan has wins over Athens, Warren, Miami Trace, and Washington so far in the tournament, but they haven’t faced a team like Cambridge, or a player like Lilly Ritz yet.

“Six-foot two, and 5’8 high jumper. You know we don’t really have that to be able to prepare for, but we’re going to work as hard as we can to try and keep her from getting the ball obviously. She’s going to get her points we just have to make sure we pressure her like we always do on defense and make some shots on offense,” said Sheridan head coach J.D. Walters.

Sheridan finished the regular season among those receiving votes in the Division II girls AP Poll and are lead by a trio of experienced players in Jenna Wharton, Kendyl Mick, and Rachel Cooke.

Cambridge on the other hand, they have wins over West Holmes, Zanesville, River View, and Maysville so far in the post-season. After trailing by five at halftime on Saturday, a “box-in-one” on Maysville’s Bailee Smith in the second-half frustrated the Panthers freshman, helping the Bobcats pull off the upset over the 9th-ranked team in the state.

The Bobcats may have to go with a different game-plan on Tuesday however, because while the Lady Generals will certainly have a tough match-up with Ritz, senior Jenna Wharton thinks that the Bobcats will have their hands full as well with the balance they bring on the offensive end.

“We think that one of either Rachel, Kendyl, Emma, or Mikayla will end up having one of their smaller guards on them so we should be able to post one of them up and have a mismatch there,” explained Wharton.

Tuesday night’s match-up will be held at Winland Gymnasium at Zanesville High School. Tip-off is schedule for  6:15 p.m. The winner will face the winner of the second game of the night between New Philadelphia and River Valley.