Midview Girls Basketball Advances to OHSAA Final Four in Dayton

What: OHSAA Division I Girls Basketball Semifinal

Who: Midview High School (23-4) vs. Princeton High School (26-2)

When: Friday (March 10) at 6 p.m.

Where: University of Dayton Arena (1801 S Edwin Moses Blvd. Dayton, OH 45417)

Tickets: One Ticket admits you into both OHSAA Division I Semifinal Games. Gates open 1 hour prior to tip-off. Adult tickets are $16 and Student tickets are $12. Fans under 2 years old admitted free. The arena is entirely reserved seating so you have to pick your seat while purchasing. All tickets are sold exclusively online at http://ohsaa.org/tickets. [Basketball --> Girls Basketball -->Division I] Make sure you select a Midview section. Midview students should select the Midview Student Section. General Presale Begins at Monday at 10 a.m. The Championship would be single-game tickets.

Cashless Venue: The University of Dayton arena is a cashless venu.

What's at Stake: The winner advances to the OHSAA Division I State Final, which takes place Saturday (March 11) at the University of Dayton. Tip-off would be at 8:30 p.m. The opponent will be the winner of Olmsted Falls High School and Pickering Central High School, which play in the other semifinal on March 10 at 8 p.m.

Last Meeting: There have been no known meetings between Midview and Princeton in girls basketball.

Watch Online: All semifinal and final games will be live stream through Spectrum. This is a paid service. The link is https://ohsaa.boxcast.com/#/channels/lpqzt5iwelgtvpbnlj8b

Listen Live: Local stations WEOL-AM 930 and WOBL AM 1320 will cover the remainder of Midview's postseason run on the radio and online.

Live Stats: Fans can track live stats at the following link: https://www.statbroadcast.com/events/statbroadcast.php?gid=ohsaa&t=1

Bracket: A complete OHSAA Division I Sweet 16 Bracket is available here: https://officials.myohsaa.org/Admin/Bracket/PublicBracket?TournamentId=2873

State Sendoff: The Midview community will give our Middies a State Sendoff Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. The plan is to take a route through downtown Grafton and then onto Parsons Road toward 301 as the head out of town toward Dayton.

How Midview Got Here: Midview finished the regular season 18-4 with two losses coming against fellow Division I Final Four foe Olmsted Falls High School as well as one against Division IV Final Four Hiland High School and one versus rival North Ridgeville High School. The Middies defeated Amherst Steele High School (52-34), Saint Joseph Academy (53-34) and Brunswick High School (58-24) to win the District title. They then knocked off Archbishop Hoban High School (70-45) and Solon High School (62-59) to win their first even Regional Championship.

How Princeton Got Here: Princeton finished the regular season 20-2 with both losses coming against rival Mason High School. The Vikings defeated Ursuline Academy (59-20), Western Hills University High School (76-18), Walnut Hills High School (61-30) and Mount Notre Dame High School (58-48) to win the District Championship. They then avenged their two loses to Mason (59-55) and defeated Kings High School 65-53 to capture the Regional title.

State of Mind: Midview High School has had just one other team ever make an OHSAA State Semifinal appearance. That team was the 1992 volleyball squad, which won its first 25 matches before falling to Stow one game shy of the state championship game.

Small but Mighty: Midview Girls Basketball is the smallest OHSAA Division I school in 2022-23. The Middies' adjusted enrollment is 325. Princeton's is the 32nd largest Division I school with an ajusted enrollment of 707.

Good Company: Midview has just four losses on the season. Three of the losses are to fellow OHSAA Final Four teams. Olmsted Falls defeated Midview 61-45 on December 7 and 63-43 on January 21. Division IV semifinalist Hiland topped Midview 47-44 in the final game of Classic in the Country on January 16.

SWC on the Map: The Southwestern Conference has two of the final 4 teams left in the OHSAA Division I tournament. Olmsted Falls will play in the opposite semifinal, which means if both teams keep win it would be an All-SWC title game.

Lorain County Flag: Midview will carry the Lorain County flag down to Dayton as the last remaning basketball team playing in the county. Lorain County has produced only one Girls Basketbal State Champion as the Avon Lake Shoregals took home the title in 1994.

League Accolades: Six Middies received All-SWC recognition in 2022-23. Senior Mary Meng and junior Olivia DiFranco were selected to the first team. Senior Grace Seymour and freshman Leah DiFranco earned second team honors. Senior Mya DiFranco and junior Alana Stacey both took home honorable mention.

County Awards: Five Middies earned All-Lorain County Division I honors this season. Senior Mary Meng and junior Olivia DiFranco were selected to the first team, senior Grace Seymour earned second team, while senior Mya DiFranco and freshmen Leah DiFranco were given honorable mention. Meng was also named Lorain County Division I Player of the Year and Brittney McNamara was tabbed Lorain County Division I Coach of the Year in 2022-23.

District Honors: Senior Mary Meng was recently selected to the All-Northeast Lakes first team, while junior Olivia DiFranco took home second team honors.

OHSAA Apparel: EA Graphics is the official OHSAA event apparel company: Online products should eventually appear here: https://ohsaa.eagraphics.com/ohsaa/shop/home

Making History: As a team, the Middies have reached new heights in wins (23), points scored (1413), field goals made (552), three-point field goals attempted (356), rebounds (1066) this season and are quickly approaching many other long-standing records.

G.O.A.T.: Junior Olivia DiFranco has set a single-season school record for points scored (500), field goal attempts (491), field goals made (181), free throws attempted (157) and free throws made (111) as well as tied the single-season game record for fields goals made (15). She also scored her 1,000th career point in the District Semifinals and is just 20 shy of breaking the school's all-time record, set by Jane Rader (1,115) in 1980.

Midview's Anchor: Senior Mary Meng has set a single-season school record for most rebounds (460) as well as the single-game record for rebounds (29) so far this season. Her season total currently ranks 8th on the OHSAA's all-time list. Meng is also trailing teammate Olivia DiFranco on the school's single-season list for field goals made (180) and points scored (438). She has accumulated 1,681 points, 1,476 rebounds and 437 blocks during her combined career at Christian Community School and Midview High School. Her rebound mark puts her third and blocks is 9th all-time in the OHSAA record book.

Parking: The University of Dayton has ample parking entering off Edwin Moses Blvd. There is no charge for parking. Spectator entrances are on the north, south and southeast sides of the Arena.

UD Arena Notes: Guests will go through security to enter the arena. Items permitted to be carried through the metal detectors include – wallet/coins, cell phone, belt, keys and watches. The following items must be place on the security table to be searched: purses, small bags, and cameras. Fans are encouraged to not bring large purses, backpacks, and other large bags as these may be required to be returned to your car. (Note: The Arena does not have space to store items determined to be too large to bring into the event.) Prohibited items include, but are not limited to: firearms, knives/blades, weapons of any kind, outside food and drink, strollers, signs larger than 8.5" x 11", tripods, balloons, animals (with the exception of service animals), large bags or backpacks, camera with lenses longer than eight (8) inches, laser pointers, and noisemakers.