PLEASANT HILL – The Arcanum Lady Trojans and the Newton Lady Indians met on the Lady Indians’ court for a WOAC varsity basketball game with Arcanum picking up a 48-36 conference win.
“This is one of those wins I’m thankful to get out of this 2-0 instead of 1-1,” said Arcanum coach, Abbey Moore. “The end goal is to get that win and as a coach sometimes you get focused on the little things but I am extremely proud of the girls for getting the job done.”
“I thought the girls fought and they played hard to the very end and I couldn’t ask for a better effort than they gave today,” said first-year Newton coach, Stefanie Landis. “There’s some things we need to continue to work on but I can’t ask for anything more than what they gave. They gave it all they had, they fought to the end and that is all you can ask for.”
Both teams held first-quarter leads before settling for an 11-11 score after one period of play.
“It’s two games in a row we have hit some adversity in a game and have gone down at one point and lost the lead,” Coach Moore said. “We have been able to overcome that and respond in a very positive way. Both of those times we have been in those situations I never got nervous – that’s the amount of confidence I have in this team.”
Arcanum took advantage of two Ashlyn Miller 3-pointers and a free throw to pace the Lady Trojans with 7 points and a 14-6 second-quarter advantage sending the teams to the break with Arcanum leading 25-17.
Period No. 3 went to the Lady Trojans by a 12-9 score with Miller hitting her fourth triple of the night to go along with a 2-point basket, 4 Lexy Gibbons points, and a Matty Noe trey giving the visitors a 37-26 advantage with three quarters in the book.
Arcanum used 6 Gibbons fourth-quarter points to lead the Lady Trojans to an 11-10 count to give Versailles a 48-36 WOAC victory.
“Our keys are going to have to be focusing on defense, hustling, and getting after it on the defensive end and offensively we just have to be patient, work the ball, and execute better,” Landis stated. “I want my team to bring that intensity and that energy every night, that’s the identity we’re trying to establish here. So far they have done that and that is my main goal, that they never give up, they go after it every single time and we’re just never going to quit.”
The Lady Indians’ Reese Hess had a steady game with 4 points in quarters 1, 2, and 4 and 6 points in the third period of action.
“Reese Hess stepped up and did a great job as our senior leader, she stepped up big for us tonight leading the charge,” said Coach Landis. “Felicity Harbour was crashing the boards well. Brooke Hines did a great job running point guard for us keeping it steady but there were a lot of contributions from all the team.”
“We used the whole bench the entire night trying to keep our legs fresh,” added Landis. “Rylee Hess stepped up big, Layla VanCulin came off the bench, Payton Nicholas did well as well so it was a whole team effort. I thought the girls did great.”
Arcanum’s Ashlyn Miller and Newton’s Reese Hess shared scoring honors on the night with 18 points each.
BOXSCORE:
ARCANUM 48, NEWTON 36
ARCANUM – A. Miller 18, L. Gibbons 17, M. Noe 5, C. Long 4, B. Anderson 2, C. Hein 2 – TOTALS 14 5-16 5 48
NEWTON – Reese Hess 18, F. Harbour 7, L. VanCulin 5, P. Nicholas, Rylee Hess 2, M. Denlinger 2 – TOTALS 16 1-1 1 36
3-POINTERS
Arcanum 5 (A. Miller 4, M. Noe 1)
Newton 1 (L. VanCulin 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
11-14-12-11 48 Arcanum
11-06-09-10 36 Newton
