After falling behind 16-0 out of the gates against the visiting Hawks, John Marshall had enough time to right the ship and advance over University 45-35 in their OVAC 5A girls basketball semifinals matchup inside the John Marshall Field House.

University employed a 1-3-1 zone to start Monday’s action, a strategy that stymied John Marshall, who were held scoreless until there was just over a minute left in the first quarter.

Before then, the Hawks had feasted on a steady supply of Monarch turnovers and had success scoring on the fast break.

“I gotta give [University] credit,” John Marshall head coach Brock Melko said. “We weren’t ready for a 1-3-1 zone at all. We’ve preached all year that when we’re good, it’s because we’re playing defense and taking care of the ball. We had six turnovers in the first five minutes and it’s like, guys, we’re not taking care of the ball. We can’t play defense. We can have a bad offensive performance and still win– but we just gotta stop throwing them the ball.

“When we finally did that, we gave ourselves a chance. I’m proud of them. I mean, you can’t always play your best, so I’m proud of them for showing up with probably our worst effort to start that we could have imagined, and still not getting down on ourselves and earning a spot in the finals.”

Riley Storm hit a 3-pointer with 1:20 on the clock in the first quarter to put the Monarchs on the board, and John Marshall trailed 18-5 after the first quarter. Storm hit two more 3’s early in the second quarter, and it seemed as if the Monarchs were back in business and had come up with answers for University’s zone.

John Marshall’s star senior finished with 26 points, 16 rebounds and two blocks against the Hawks.

“I think I could have stayed home today and we would’ve won,” Melko said. “Rilee wouldn’t have let us lose this game. We could have been down 50-0 and we were gonna win if we had her.”

While John Marshall found answers to cut down on their turnovers and adapt to University’s defense, the Hawks had no answers on the boards against the Monarchs.

John Marshall secured 16 offensive rebounds throughout Monday and outrebounded University 39-21 on the game.

In addition to Storm’s 16 caroms, Paislee Babiczuk also had double-digit rebounds with 12, finishing with 10 points to notch a double-double.

After scoring 18 points — eight on the fast break — in the first quarter, University’s offense couldn’t find that same rhythm the rest of the game. The Hawks still led at halftime, 24-15.

“You can’t fault their defense whatsoever,” University head coach Sammy Lusk said of his team. “You give up 45 points to this team, that’s a really good job defensively. But when you score 35, that is the flip side of it. In all of our losses, we’ve been at 48 points or less. So, the losses are when we’re struggling to put the ball in the basket. I gotta find different ways to get us in better positions.”

John Marshall’s Kalyn Reese scored seven straight points to start the third quarter, and there was a bit of a role-reversal as the Monarchs started the second half with some full-court traps that kept University’s offense off-balance.

Reese finished the game with eight points and nine rebounds, and John Marshall trailed 31-26 going into the fourth quarter.

Rilee Storm tied the game with a 3-pointer at the seven-minute mark of the fourth quarter, 31-31, and went coast-to-coast on the Monarchs’ next possession to put John Marshall ahead for the first time, 33-31.

The 16-point deficit was the biggest comeback win of the year for John Marshall.

“I’ll tell you this; it’s a lot more fun to not do that,” Melko said of the comeback. “I’d rather just play well at the start. But instead you gotta give them credit for not making excuses and just digging ourselves out of the hole we created.”

Bri Fox led University with 18 points; nine in the first quarter. Maddie Campbell had five points and five steals.

“We have to find different ways to pressure people and get points off turnovers,” Lusk said. “That’s kind of been our Achilles heel in these big games, we struggle to put the ball in the basket. [John Marshall]’s a good team. You’re not gonna keep them down the whole time. Rilee Storm’s one of the best players in the state. We just gotta get back at it and find creative ways to get the ball in the basket for us.”

John Marshall has a date with Steubenville for the OVAC 5A championship on Saturday. Big Red has prevailed in two regular season meetings against the Monarchs this season.

“I respect their players and coaches,” Melko said of his team’s upcoming opponent. “Over the last five or six years, we’ve developed a really friendly rivalry with them. They’re not 18-1 for no reason. They’re really, really good. They’re as good as any team we have on our schedule. We’re aware of that. We’ll enjoy this tonight and start breaking into Steubenville again tomorrow. Hopefully the third time will be a charm for us.”