Trojans sophomore Brooke Nelson scored a game-high 20 points, hitting four 3-pointers, as Southeastern finished its season 17-8.
Buccs sophomore Maggie Anderson had 18 points, junior Carlie Besecker had 14 and freshman Avery Koffer added 13 for Covington, which improved to 14-10.
Southeastern was held to just two points in the third quarter.
“I can’t really pinpoint what it was,” said Trojans coach Matt Harner. “We’re not sometimes mentally prepared to come into a game and really, really fight. I thought Covington was — I thought they played pretty well in the first half and really brought even more intensity in the second half and we just couldn’t match it. Plus, when you don’t hit shots, it doesn’t help. It was hard to run action against that zone.”
Nelson scored 17 points in the first half, hitting three 3-pointers against the Buccs zone defense.
“They’ve got great players,” said Buccaneers coach Shawn Naff. “(Nelson and Southeastern senior Kelsey Vollrath) are great guards. It’s tough to guard two really tough guards. We went zone today because we thought we could keep an eye on them. Obviously, in the first half, we didn’t do a great job on (Nelson). We were fortunate (Vollrath) got into foul trouble and we didn’t have to chase after both of them.”
While Covington struggled in the third quarter all year long, Naff said, they weren’t going to let it happen this time around. The Buccaneers went on a 9-0 run to start the second half and never trailed again. They held Southeastern to just two points in the third quarter, grabbing a 40-28 lead.
“We put a lot of our focus on coming out in the second half with energy, exploding and getting the ball into the post,” he said.
The Trojans cut the lead to 10 on a 3-pointer by senior Makenna Ashmore with two minutes remaining, but they couldn’t get any closer.
Covington advanced to face D-IV second-ranked Fort Loramie (23-2) in a district final game at 1 p.m. Saturday at Troy High School.
“We’re excited,” Naff said. “We’re going to dive deep into Loramie tonight and see where we go from here.”
The Trojans will graduate four seniors, including Vollrath, who recently surpassed 1,000 points for her career.
“One of the things I love about her is that I don’t have to ask her to play hard,” Harner said. “She plays hard all the time. … She was huge for us in the transformation of Southeastern girls basketball.”
Harner thanked all four of his seniors — including Aubree Moore, Shelby Simmons, Ashmore and Vollrath — for playing a key role in the program’s resurgence. They won six games as freshmen and improved each season, winning 17 games as seniors.
“I’m thankful they stuck it out and played a huge part in our success,” Harner said. “I’m going to miss them. I just told them in the locker room that I knew at some point we’d be successful, but I didn’t know we’d be getting 17 wins by your senior year. It’s a testament to what they’ve done for this program and I’m so thankful for all of them.”
Southeastern will return three starters and a strong group of underclassmen next season. They hope to compete for their first Ohio Heritage Conference title since 2008 and their first district final appearance since 2015.
“Hopefully they’ll be able to help bring us there,” Harner said.
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