Depew Wildcats repeat as A2 Girls Hoops Champion

McKenzie Hill had high praise for East Aurora after Wednesday’s A2 sectional title game. The Depew coach said Gary Schutrum’s team was like a “little beehive,” buzzing around and making life difficult for her Wildcats.

The Blue Devils, who had lost twice to Depew by an average of 40 points in the regular season, were a pesky, persistent foe. They fell behind 11-0, but quickly clawed back and refused to go away. But a veteran Depew team held on for a 49-37 win to capture its second straight A2 title in its sixth straight title game appearance.

Depew, which is now 20-3 and unbeaten against Class A competition, will play Lake Shore at 2 p.m. on Sunday in the overall A final at Buff State. Lake Shore beat Starpoint, 54-46, in the A1 final earlier on Wednesday evening.

“They throw a lot of different things at you to keep you on your toes,” Hill said of a young, promising East Aurora squad. “They did a phenomenal job. Our group was super experienced last year. But none of them were seniors. Now they’re experiencing that their career is on the line.” No Wildcat has as much big-game experience as senior point guard Olivia Leazott, who led Depew with 18 points. Leazott’s hoop with two seconds left decided the sectional final a year ago. It wasn’t as dramatic this time, but Leazott made a timely play whenever East Aurora was making a run.

After East Aurora got within two early in the second quarter, Leazott, a powerful lefty, scored on back-to-back drives. In the third quarter, when the Blue Devils crept back within five, Leazott had three buckets and three assists over a five-minute span to push the lead back to 12, 35-23.

“This time, they compacted their defense more,” said Leazott, who led the Depew flag football squad to a sectional final last spring after the coach talked her into coming out for quarterback. “So it was harder for us to drive in. But we were still able to work around it. Once they got on a run, it was like ‘We’re not done yet.’ We just had to get going again, and we were good from there.”

Depew figures to have a tougher time in the A final against Lake Shore. The Wildcats beat Lake Shore twice in the regular season, by nine and five points. But they’ll once again be without junior forward Ashley Codr, their second-leading scorer and only true shot-blocker. Hill said Codr injured her spleen when she fell on her stomach and is finished for the season.

“She’s a vital piece,” Hill said of Codr. “She does a lot of stuff that might go unnoticed. She gets a lot of tips, deflections that cause havoc for the other team. But a lot of girls are stepping up big.”

That’s how it goes in basketball. You run into a beehive and figure out how to get through it. Depew girls basketball tends to find a way. Hill said girls have bought into the hoop culture. Six straight trips to a sectional final is the evidence. Leazott has been part of it since the eighth grade. This is her last shot. Next year, she said she’ll be playing basketball at Genesee CC.

“It feels great to win back-to-back,” Leazott said. “It feels nice to win, especially in my senior year. We’re not done yet.”

Image Courtesy of Section 6 Girls Hoops Twitter