Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

SOLON – The biggest win in more than half a decade for the Solon girls basketball program came in the most fitting way possible.

An absolute battle from beginning to end.

And the Spartans wouldn’t want it any other way.

Class 3A No. 12 Solon twice battled back in the final three minutes of regulation to force overtime and then overcame a pair of late deficits in overtime before hanging on for a 50-48 win over No. 15 Monticello (16-6) on Wednesday in a Region 7 semifinal in Solon.

“How ironic that we had to battle through all of this?,” Solon junior Elly Holubar asked. “We could never have an easy game. That’s just not us.”

Callie Levin scored 13 of her game-high 24 points in the fourth quarter and overtime, including the go-ahead driving layup with 40 seconds left.

Ava Stebral sealed the deal for Solon (17-5) blocking a layup attempt by Karli Recker on the final Monticello possession and grabbing the rebound as the Spartans advanced to a regional final for the first time since 2016.

“This feels so good, we’ve come so far in the past three years it’s unbelievable,” Stebral said. “We put in so much effort. We started going to the gym every day in August, we are always shooting and it’s paying off.”

Few things have come easy for Solon during a three-year about face that has seen the Spartans go from three wins two seasons ago to a WAMAC title and a regional final appearance this year.

The latest step in the Solon turnaround came Wednesday and it embodied most of the last three seasons.

It wasn’t always pretty, there were some ugly moments, but the Spartans battled through.

“We have worked so hard to get here,” Holubar said. “We’ve gone through so much, we’ve been through battles up and down to get to this point and to finally feel that satisfaction of having won as a team is just an overwhelming feeling that can’t be replaced.”

Solon will be seeking its first state tournament berth since 2006 when it faces Davenport Assumption (7-11) in the Region 7 title game on Saturday at 7 p.m. at North Cedar High School in Clarence.

The Knights knocked off top-seeded No. 10 Center Point-Urbana 40-31 on Wednesday.

“Hats off to Monticello, that’s a good team, they are really good, I’m just happy and how could you not be we get a chance to play another game,” Solon coach Jamie Smith said. “Three years ago if I would have told someone that, that we would be playing in this game, they would have laughed it off but we just kept playing.”

Solon just kept playing on Wednesday.

The Spartans had the biggest lead of the game at 19-12 on a Kaia Holtkamp layup with 6:11 left in the first half but wouldn’t score again before halftime as Monticello pulled to within 19-18.

Neither team would lead by more than three points the rest of the game.

Solon led 37-34 after a driving Callie Levin found Holubar for a layup with 5:03 left but Monticello scored the next six points to take a 40-37 lead.

The Panthers had the ball up three after a Holtkamp 3-pointer rimmed out with 2:45 to play.

On the ensuing possession Levin picked off an outlet pass and scored in transition then gave Solon the lead back with a 3-pointer with 1:51 left.

“When that girl was passing it she looked right into my eyes,” Levin said. “I was able to get the steal and I think that gave us some momentum.”

Monticello took a 44-42 lead on a steal and layup by Gabrielle Guilford with 38 seconds left but Levin hit a pair of free throws on the next Solon possession to tie the game.

Solon held Monticello without a shot attempt on its final possession of regulation to force overtime.

“We just kept playing,” Smith said. “We made some mistakes but Ava hit a big 3, Elly got some big rebounds and Callie hit some huge shots. Some big-time player type shots.”

Monticello led twice in overtime at 46-44 and 48-46 after a pair of Guilford free throws with 1:43 left.

Levin scored the final four points on a pull-up 12-footer in the lane with 1:37 left then gave Solon the lead with a nifty driving layup with 40 seconds to play.

“That team was good and we had to play our butts off every single second on offense and defense,” Levin said. “When I came out on the court and they were up by two I need we had to score and then it was just our defense getting stops.”

Monticello took a timeout to set up a final play but Stebral swatted away a Recker layup attempt then came up with 10 seconds left then grabbed the loose ball and raced down court.

“All we needed was a stop and it was over, we needed one stop and one rebound,” Stebral said. “I knew I couldn’t foul so I just tried to do my best and I got position and was able to get the block and then recover it.”

The win snapped an eight-game winning streak for Monticello which got 20 points from Guilford and 10 points from Lydia Recker.

Levin was the only Solon player in double figures with 24 but the Spartans got key contributions from across the lineup.

Stebral had seven points off the bench, Holubar had six points and 14 rebounds and Holtkamp and Makinley Levin each had five points.

“I feel like as a team we really grew this game,” Holubar said. “We worked as a team, we worked together and everyone had a value and a role in this game and to have that as a team is really important.”

Monticello                 10  8  10  16  4  –  48

Solon                             15  4  11  14  6  –  50

Solon (50) – Ava Stebral 3-6 0-0 7, Kaia Holtkamp 2-12 0-0 5, Makinley Levin 2-5 0-0 5, Callie Levin 8-22 5-7 24, Hilary Wilson 1-3 0-0 3, Elly Holubar 2-5 2-2 6, Totals 18-53 7-9 50.

Monticello (48) – Lydia Recker 5-7 0-1 10, Tori McDonald 2-3 0-2 4, Gabrielle Guilford 7-14 6-8 20, Karli Recker 1-6 2-2 4, Jaelyn Aitchison 1-2 0-0 2, Bronwyn Hodge 1-5 0-0 2, Rebekah Prull 3-5 0-0 6, Totals 20-42 8-13 48.

3-point field goals – SOL 7-22 (Stebral 1-3, Holtkamp 1-3, M. Levin 1-3, C. Levin 3-10, Wilson 1-3), MON 0-3 (K. Recker 0-2, Aitchison 0-1). Rebounds – SOL 30 (Holubar 14), MON 32 (Guilford 8). Turnovers – SOL 14, MON 17. Total fouls – SOL 13, MON 12. Fouled out – MON (McDonald). Technical fouls – None.

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