"It's great. The adversity we battled through this year, everybody talking about all the pressure that was on us. I'm just happy and proud of the girls keeping the outside noise where it was. They wanted four-for-four,

The Avon Lake Shoregals have strung together a few stalwart defensive performances in matchups against some of the best teams in Northeast Ohio and it has brought them to their first OHSAA girls basketball championship appearance in 31 years.

Purcell Marian jumped out to a 7-0 lead and never led by less than five points the rest of the way, beating Avon Lake, 72-44, to capture the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division III state championship on Friday at University of Dayton Arena. Purcell Marian finished the season with a 23-6 record. Avon Lake also finished 23-6.

Avon Lake guard Olivia Tobin isn’t the biggest or the most athletic player. She has her own approach. “It’s brain over brawn and work smarter, not harder,” Tobin said. Avon Lake entered this

AVON LAKE, Ohio — The old saying in sports, ‘It’s hard to beat a good team twice,’ holds true for the Avon Lake Shoregals girls basketball team, especially in their recent playoff run. Avon Lake head coach Paul Appel, knowing his team had the talent and scheme to make a deep run, wanted to make sure they were battle tested in the regular season.