Photo Provided Members of the Union Local girls basketball team pose with the Division V District championship trophy following Saturday’s win over Martins Ferry inside the ECO Center. The Jets will play Minford tonight at 6 in the regional semifinals at Logan High School. Front row, from left, are Khloe Gallagher, Edyn McGary, Pazeley Whiteley, Carlie McFarland and Valerie Klauss. Back row, from left, are Lindsay Davis, Alli Kellaway, Myah Martin, Delaney Butler, Ella Pietranton, Teegan Day, Laken Vinskovich, Ameera Saunders, Ellie Greenwood and manager Mollie Greenwood. Union Local Will Meet Minford In Division V Regional Semifinal

LOGAN — When Union Local head girls basketball coach Lou “Scooter” Tolzda and his chief assistant, Nick Nardo, traveled to Logan High School to watch the Jets play in the Division V, Region 19 Volleyball Tournament on Halloween, they had one thought in mind.

“Nick and I went down to Logan for the regional volleyball tournament in the fall and said ‘it would be nice to get back down here,”‘ Tolzda recalled. “By golly, we’re going back down there.”

With its workmanlike 60-43 victory over Martins Ferry in the Eastern District 2 championship game on Saturday inside the ECO Center, the Jets (20-5) punched their ticket to Jim Myers Gymnasium for the Division V, Region 19 girls basketball tournament for the third time in the last four years. They will face Minford (19-5), the Southeast 2 winner over Wheelersburg, 51-34, tonight at 6. The Falcons have won six straight and 16 of their last 17, the lone loss was to Wheelersburg on Feb. 3. This is their first regional appearance since 2018.

“When you get to the regionals, all the team’s are pretty good,” Tolzda said. “They beat a good Wheelersburg team.”

This will be Union Local’s third regional appearance — all at Logan but in Division III — in the last four seasons.

“The one time (2022) it was a really fun experience. The other year (2023), we lost to Wheelersburg by two, 49-47, and a lot of people made a big deal that we lost to them, but that was a Final Four team that year.”

The 2022 team won the regional over Proctorville Fairland, 69-67, before bowing out to eventual state champion Cincinnati Marian Purcell, 59-43, in the state semifinals.

“They’ve got a big girl, 6-3 or 6-4, that is going to Bradley University. She’s pretty strong inside,” Tolzda noted of the Falcons top player, Lindsee Williams. “She is pretty good. Obviously, her size is going to be a big concern. They’ve also got a really good guard that can shoot the ball.

“Other than the big girl, I think their talent level is what we’ve played against this season,” he allowed. “We’ve definitely seen players as good as what they have.

“We feel confident that we can play with them. Our job, as coaches, is to get them ready for the next game because the Martins Ferry game was a real emotional game for us. We played really hard on Saturday.

“We’re not done. We want to keep playing. We’ve been in the heat of the battle,” Tolzda added. “I think the success the girls had in volleyball has definitely helped us.”

The youthful squad only has two seniors in Ella Pietranton and Teegan Day.

“Ella was the first girl when I came here four years ago as head coach to come to an open gym. I said ‘she’s alright.’ Then the season started and we didn’t have a JV team, but she hung in there, and, honestly, I didn’t know what to expect the second year from her, but she really worked on her athleticism and has been invaluable to us this year,” the coach praised. “She hustles all the time and plays hard. She’s also a very good leader. I think we’ve got everything and then some from what we expected out of her.”

Pietranton averages 10 points and five rebounds a night.

“Teegan transferred here a couple of years ago from Philo and she gives us some scoring punch off the bench,” Tolzda pointed out. “She’s done a very good job for us.”

The Jets have a pair of 6-0 ‘twin towers’ of their own inside in junior Laken Vinskovich and sophomore Ameera Saunders.

“Laken has been a strong and steady girl. That runs in her family. They have a great tradition of being great athletes,” the coach said. “She has picked up where her sister, Reagan, left off. There is still a lot of upside with Laken, and we’re very excited about that.”

Vinskovich averages 16 points, eight rebounds and three assists per game.

‘Ameera is the x-factor. She had a big-time game against Martins Ferry, and we’ve been waiting for that to happen,” Tolzda said. “We’ve seen that type of game from her last summer and we’ve been waiting for it to happen this season, and it finally did. She had a big game for us.”

Saunders averages just six points and six rebounds.

“Delaney Butler and Myah Martin are both great defenders and they play their hearts out. Alli Kellaway is the same way. They are all solid in the roles we asked them to play. It’s like we have 7 starters. They were all into the game on Saturday,” Tolzda described.

When asked how he and his staff gets the girls back down to earth, Tolzda replied, “You’ve got to get to the point where you’re not satisfied. You’ve got to think with the mindset that we’re not done, and we’re not. “

During their wire-to-wire win over Martins Ferry, the Jets were guilty of 24 turnovers.

“We struggle at times with our shooting and we struggle at times taking care of the basketball,” he admitted. “I don’t think that’s a big secret. However, I also think it sparks our defense. The girls know they have to play tougher at that end of the floor when we’re not executing on offense.

“We talk about taking care of the ball all the time. When we turn the ball over, it’s a team turnover, not just one player.”

The winner meets the victor between Tuscarawas Valley and Portsmouth in the regional finals on Saturday at 4 p.m., also in Logan.