Staff photo / Brian Yauger Maplewood junior Morgan Himes drives to the basket during Saturday's district final against Mogadore.

MINERAL RIDGE — Despite a terrific second-half effort, the Maplewood Rockets fell short on Saturday, losing their district final matchup against Mogadore, 49-45.

It was down to the wire, with each team throwing their best at each other, but the Wildcats were able to fend off Maplewood in the fourth quarter and stifle the comeback.

While it took a minute for Maplewood to slow down and let the game come to them, once they settled in, things started clicking.

“We needed to stay composed,” Rockets coach Stephanie Pykare said of the first half. “We allowed ourselves to get inside of our head, speed ourselves up and make mistakes that we don’t usually make. Mogadore came out extremely composed, props to them for that.

“Then, in the second half, we talked about getting in our rhythm, we’re working on our sets, getting back to our identity of just pushing the ball in transition, because we hadn’t done that really well in that first half. And on defense, we wanted to contain the dribble drive and just play solid defense and rebound. Rebounding was a top-three point of emphasis for us. We had to get after it more on the boards.”

Claire Urchek paced the Rockets with 15 points. Aliah Brumit added 11.

Mogadore will play Western Reserve/Cornerstone Christian in a Division VII, Massillon Regional semifinal. The game is set for 8 p.m. at Massillon Perry High School on Thursday.

Maplewood’s season ends with a 22-3 mark. While no team wants to end its season with a loss, the Rockets feel like they’re ahead of schedule. That just makes the team all the more excited for the 2025-26 campaign.

“We pushed our ceiling and I didn’t think that we had this in us,” Pykare said. “I thought maybe we had to wait until next season, but the girls got in the gym last summer, shot over 65,000 shots. They really worked extremely hard and then grinded through October and November and weren’t satisfied. We came from two seasons ago with the juniors, as freshmen and just have exploded and blew the top off. I’m so proud of them.

“I think this district runner-up is bittersweet. It’s not what we wanted, but it represents so much more than just one game, so super proud of them.”

The Rockets will be back next season, returning the entire roster from this year’s team with the added benefit of experience from this tournament run.

They’ve already pushed their ceiling once, why not try and do it again?

“We’re looking for a tougher schedule to really push our ceiling even more,” Pykare said. “It’s important for me as a coach. I’m young. I still don’t know everything. I still need to get better at a list of things so it’ll be really beneficial just to take this experience and move forward.”

With no seniors and just three juniors on this year’s squad, hopes are high.

When asked where the program goes from here, Pykare kept it simple.

“Up,” she said.