VERSAILLES – The Fort Loramie Lady Redskins defeated the Mississinawa Valley Lady Blackhawks 54-34 Saturday at the Prosperity Promotions Tiger Classic, played at Versailles High School.
The game featured two highly successful veteran coaches: Mississinawa Valley’s Kirk Comer and Fort Loramie’s Carla Siegel.
“They were ready to play today, and we weren’t,” said Mississinawa Valley head coach Kirk Comer. “They were a lot tougher mentally than we are. We’re not a very mentally tough team, and until we get tougher mentally, we’re not going to beat good teams like that or make a very deep tournament run.”
Fort Loramie scored 15 points in each of the first two quarters to build a 30-20 halftime lead, edging Mississinawa Valley 15-12 in the opening period and 15-8 in the second.
“I felt like we could make some defensive adjustments at halftime and make a run, even being down 10,” Comer said. “Obviously, I was wrong. We just couldn’t get it going. We were doing things we haven’t been taught — going one-on-four, not running our offense. We panicked, and once again that goes back to mental toughness.”
The Lady Redskins took full control in the third quarter, outscoring the Lady Blackhawks 15-5 to push the advantage to 45-25 heading into the final eight minutes. The teams played to an even 9-9 fourth quarter, sealing the 20-point non-conference win for Fort Loramie.
“We’re athletic, and if we’re better than you, we can beat you — but not always does the best team win,” Comer noted. “Give them all the credit in the world. I didn’t feel like the best team won, but the team that played the best and was the most prepared won tonight.”
Mississinawa Valley will look to regroup quickly with a short turnaround.
“We have four days before we play again,” Comer said. “We have a really good Versailles team on Saturday, and hopefully we can do better then.”
BOX SCORE:
FORT LORAMIE 54, MISSISSINAWA VALLEY 34
FORT LORAMIE – L. Poeppelman 18, J. Siegel 11, O. Brandewe 8, I. Meyer 7, K. Tennery 5, M. Grudich 3, C. Hoelscher 2 – TOTALS 16 10-17 4 54
MISSISSINAWA VALLEY – P. Emrick 11, C. Hoggatt 6, B. Seubert 6, M. Hoggatt 3, C. Seubert 3, L. Geesaman 2, M. Stachler 2 – TOTALS 10 11-15 1 34
3-POINTERS
Fort Loramie 4 (J. Siegel 1, M. Grudich 1, L. Poeppelman 1, K. Tennery 1)
Mississinawa Valley 1 (M. Hoggatt 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
15-15-15-09 54 Fort Loramie
12-08-05-09 34 Mississinwa Valley
