DAYTON — Coming into Saturday’s OHSAA Division V State Championship Game, the Portsmouth Trojans’ girls basketball program had three golden opportunities that were laid right in front of them.
They had the opportunity to win back-to-back state championships.
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They had the chance to defeat the team that handed them their last tournament loss in state championship action back in March 2024.
And they put themselves in position to knock off a previously unbeaten foe in Ottawa-Glandorf.
Amy Hughes’ team of eight accomplished all three feats in one fell swoop — behind the junior point guard who showed the school they call ‘OG,’ who the real OG is.
Playing the basketball game of her life, Portsmouth’s Keke Woods put together a true performance for the ages in Saturday’s OHSAA Division V State Championship Game, dropping in a game-high 26 points on a perfect 11-of-11 shooting, grabbing a team-high eight rebounds and nabbing a game-high five steals.
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The performance by the 2026 OHSAA Division V State Champions was truly masterful, but it was just one of many great efforts in the Lady Trojans’ team of eight as the Portsmouth girls basketball program became the first in school history to win back-to-back state championships as well as the first girls basketball program in Scioto County to do the same with its 53-48 win over Ottawa-Glandorf Friday evening.
En route to its second consecutive state championship, Portsmouth put together incredible numbers as the Lady Trojans went 18-of-29 from the field (62.1 percent) and shot 15-of-19 (78.9 percent) from the free throw line.
In the end, however, Portsmouth’s defense is what arguably brought the Lady Trojans home.
Ottawa-Glandorf, who was held to 17-of-42 shooting (40.7 percent) by Portsmouth, hit just three field goals in the fourth quarter, allowing Portsmouth to extend its 39-37 lead at the end of the third frame en route to the win. The Lady Trojans held the Lady Titans to just one field goal over the final 4:08 of play in its five-point win.
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“My kids are really tough, aren’t they?” Hughes said, smiling from ear to ear. “To pull this off with defense and rebounding and excitement, just how hard they play, is really fun and really phenomenal.”
One of two seniors to graduate with two state titles alongside fellow teammate KK Mays, Portsmouth senior Sienna Allen notched 13 points in the state title win, cementing a legacy that will be remembered for a lifetime. She and Mays will continue their basketball careers at Ohio and Shawnee State, respectively.
“It means a lot,” Allen said. “This is what we’ve been working for, and we did it last year. Our next goal was to win it back-to-back, and bring home another championship to our team and our community.”
Woods certainly played a massive role in pulling that off alongside her teammates.
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Scoring seven straight for Portsmouth at one point during the opening quarter, Woods’ effort, along with a Bry Shannon three-pointer and four points from Sienna Allen, allowed the Lady Trojans to match Ottawa-Glandorf at every stop, as Portsmouth trailed the Lady Titans by a scant 15-14 marker after the opening quarter.
Portsmouth’s defense, however, kicked things up a notch in the second quarter, particularly following the second quarter media timeout.
Down 20-18 to Ottawa-Glandorf with 6:04 to play, Shannon hit another trey at that juncture to give Portsmouth the lead at that point at 21-20.
Woods, who had already scored earlier in the quarter off of her own steal, then scored twice more off of successful swipes, while Sienna Allen scored off of a high-low pass from Hayven Carter. Salem Allen and Woods then successfully sliced and diced the Ottawa-Glandorf defense on the right side of the floor, with the younger Allen finding Woods with a pretty look that gave Portsmouth a 31-24 lead with 1:42 to play.
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The margin remained at that juncture at the halftime break, as Woods posted 15 points on a perfect 6-of-6 shooting at the half and three steals to boot, with each steal resulting in two points apiece for a six-point swing to help the Lady Trojans get breathing room in its seven-point lead.
“We have played here every single summer, so this is basically like our home court,” Woods said. “We really love this court. I just wanted to play to my full potential today so that we could bring it home, not for just us, but for our fans as well.”
“They’re just fighters,” Hughes said of Portsmouth’s high effort, intensity, attention to detail and poise. “They’re just fighters and winners. They’re really coachable and easy to work with. They listen and they want to learn.”
Down 39-31 in the third quarter of action, six straight points by Ottawa-Glandorf’s Madison McKee drew the Lady Titans within 39-37 of Portsmouth’s lead at the end of the third.
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McKee, a 6-2 junior who led Ottawa-Glandorf with 16 points and 10 rebounds, got assistance from the Lady Titans’ Karsyn Erford and Ottawa-Glandorf’s Gracie Lammers. Erford scored two of her 18 points with 4:52 remaining to pull Ottawa-Glandorf within 45-43, while Lammers hit her second three of the contest to draw the Lady Titans within 47-46 at the 4:08 mark.
Over the next minute-and-a-half, however, Portsmouth stifled Ottawa-Glandorf defensively, and got two big free throws from Sienna Allen to push the lead out to a 49-46 margin.
Not quitting, Erford, a 5-8 senior, appeared to make a big play for Ottawa-Glandorf. Stepping in front of an errant pass by Portsmouth, the Lady Titans appeared to have a free run at the rim with two-and-a-half minutes to go in the game and a chance to cut the Portsmouth lead to one.
But they forgot about the OG. Yes, the real OG.
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Reading the play all the way, Woods sprinted from the corner in front of Portsmouth’s bench, tracked down Erford, got in front of the senior and in one motion, went straight up to swat Erford’s shot attempt back to the UD Arena court, where the ball rolled out of bounds.
The play, arguably the most important in the entire game, led to a Ottawa-Glandorf turnover 24 seconds later — when McKee was called for an offensive foul after extending her elbow out in an attempt to clear space.
Ottawa-Glandorf was never the same the rest of the way.
“It means a lot,” Woods said of the play that was pivotal in Portsmouth defending its state title. “I just had to make sure that I had to hustle every possession for my team, so we could accomplish something great.”
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From there, Allen, along with Portsmouth junior forward Hayven Carter, were paramount in sealing the deal.
Once a bugaboo for Portsmouth early in the season, the Lady Trojans showed no sign of stress at the charity stripe in the game’s final moments. Portsmouth, between Allen and Carter, went a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line in the game’s final 3:16 to help the Lady Trojans put the game out of reach.
Portsmouth ultimately hit each of its final eight shots from the charity stripe en route to going a strong 15-of-19 from the line.
“I do it every day in practice,” Sienna Allen said. “I stay after practice and I shoot free throws until I make 10 in a row at least. I just tell myself to shoot the same way that I have been every day. I make 10 or 20 in a row every day. I just try to stay focused and shoot the shots the same way that I do every day.”
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At the final buzzer, euphoria, capped off with what has become a trademark backflip from Woods, ensued.
“It’s like a dream come true,” Hughes said. “To be honest with you, this is something that we’ve worked for and been talking about it for eight years. That’s not an exaggeration at all. It’s just something that we’ve been talking about since these girls were little. They have just fulfilled every dream that we’ve had for them. It’s really tough — it’s tougher to do back-to-back, than to win the first one. I can’t even describe the toughness, the grit and how hard they practice and work. Really, just how good they are as kids. It’s amazing. They really just win at everything in life. They win at Homecoming, they win at River Days, they win at grades. They’re super popular. They’re just winners at everything that they do.”
Perhaps nobody said it better than the very OG who ultimately was named the OHSAA Division V State Championship Game MVP.
“It feels amazing,” Woods said. “I’m so thrilled that I got to do it with the people that I love the most.”
