PITSBURG – The Mississinawa Valley Lady Blackhawks turned in a dominant defensive performance Thursday night, holding the home-standing Franklin Monroe Lady Jets scoreless in the second half while rolling to a 52-11 WOAC varsity girls basketball victory.
“Our defense has always been pretty good; we’ve always been in the top rankings in the defensive average,” said 30-year veteran coach Kirk Comer, now in his first season at the helm of the Lady Blackhawks. “But I don’t ever remember a time where we held someone to no points.”
Mississinawa Valley held a narrow 11-8 lead after one quarter of play, with the Hoggatt twins accounting for all of the Lady Hawks’ scoring. Cora Hoggatt had six points, while Makenna Hoggatt added five, including a three-pointer. Kyra Brandt paced Franklin Monroe with four points, while Peyton Buhl and Ava Figel each added a bucket.
“The first quarter was phenomenal,” said Franklin Monroe first-year coach Carrie Wood. “We came out with really good defense, we made some big stops, and we did all the little things right in the first quarter.”
The Lady Blackhawks began to pull away in the second quarter behind six points from Brooklynn Seubert, outscoring the Lady Jets 14-3 to take a 25-11 lead into halftime. Franklin Monroe’s second-quarter scoring came entirely from the free-throw line, shooting 3-for-6.
“We have a lot of talent, and we’re growing as a team,” Comer said. “We need to get better and be more disciplined. We gambled a lot in the first half and gave up some easy shots.”
“The second quarter we still had really good defense,” Wood said. “We just started to lose our drive on offense.”
Mississinawa Valley’s defense completely took over in the second half, shutting down the Lady Jets in both the third and fourth quarters.
The Lady Hawks took the third quarter 10-0 behind four points from Brooklynn Seubert and three points each from Makenna Hoggatt and freshman Cassidy Seubert.
Mississinawa Valley continued to extend its lead in the fourth quarter, pushing the advantage to 52-11 at the 2:54 mark. Both coaches emptied their benches as the game was played under a running clock. Makenna Hoggatt led the fourth-quarter scoring with six points, while Cora Seubert added five, Brooklynn Seubert chipped in four, and Gretchen Rodheffer rounded out the scoring by going 2-for-2 at the free-throw line.
“We’re sharing the ball a lot better than we were, and we’re starting to grow as a team,” Comer noted. “We want to be playing our best basketball going into February and March.”
“The second half, we lost focus and lost the little things that we should have been doing the right way,” Wood said. “Our focus moving forward is keeping momentum and focusing on the next play, which we talk about every single time.”
Makenna Hoggatt led Mississinawa Valley and all scorers with a game-high 15 points, while Brooklynn Seubert added 14.
With the win, the Lady Blackhawks improve to 5-1 on the season, and Franklin Monroe falls to 1-4.
BOX SCORE:
MISSISSINAWA VALLEY 52, FRANKLIN MONROE 11
MISSISSINAWA VALLEY – M. Hoggatt 15, B. Seubert 14, C. Seubert 8, C. Hoggatt 8, T. Woodbury 3, T. Reichard 2, G. Rodheffer 2 – TOTALS 20 6-12 2 52
FRANKLIN MONROE – K. Brandt 4, P. Buhl 3, A. Figel 2, A. Addis 1, C. Nichols 1 – TOTALS 4 3-8 0 11
3-POINTERS
Mississinawa Valley 2 (T. Woodbury 1, M. Hoggatt 1)
Franklin Monroe 0
SCORE by QUARTERS
11-14-10-17 52 Mississinawa Valley
08-03-00-00 11 Franklin Monroe
