UNION CITY – Mississinawa Valley defeated the visiting Franklin Monroe Lady Jets 71-31 in Thursday night WOAC action with nine Lady Hawks getting on the scoreboard.
“I thought we played well,” said MV coach, Michael Paige. “We had foul trouble with a lot of our people so we played a lot more of our players than we would normally play but we got great production out of our bench and I thought we played really well as a team today.”
“They’re a very big team, they’re strong,” said Franklin Monroe coach, Zane Shellabarger. “I though my girls battled, the girls played hard. I don’t like to lose but I have no problem with their effort.”
The Lady Blackhawks grabbed an early 21-12 lead after one quarter of action with balanced scoring from eight Syenna Purdin points including two 3-points, five Taylee Woodbury points including a trey, and four points each from Jocelyn Hoggatt and Mackenzea Townsend.
Mississinawa stretched its lead to 23 points outscoring the visitors 20-6 in period No. 2 sending the teams to the break with the Lady Hawks holding a 41-18 advantage. Townsend paced MV with 6 points with seven Lady Hawks getting on the board.
“Our defense is supposed to be our staple so every game we’re trying to get better and better at defense,” Paige stated. “The more defense we can play, the more we can push the ball. We want to play fast, we want to play in transition so it all starts with the defense.”
The Lady Hawks continued to use its height advantage in outscoring the visitors 20-10 in the third led by 6’1” junior, Mackenzea Townsend accounting for 8 points.
“Mackenzea showed up today,” said Coach Paige. “We have been waiting for her to show up for a few games now but that’s the Mackenzea we see at practice every day so for her to have that kind of game hopefully that propels her to the next few games.”
Taking a 35 point lead to the final quarter, a running clock was in play with MV closing out the night 10-3.
“We’re really pleased,” Coach Paige said of building a program at MV. “We’re really young. We only have three seniors and we have freshmen and sophomores that are playing really well. Our whole JV is pretty much freshman except for two or three and we have a couple eighth graders that are pretty good that are coming next year so the program of the future looks bright.”
Townsend led Mississinawa Valley and all scorers with a game high 18 points. FM freshman, Adalynn Hines paced the Lady Jets with 15 points.
BOXSCORE:
MISSISSINAWA VALLEY 71, FRANKLIN MONROE 31
MISSISSINAWA VALLEY – M. Townsend 18, T. Woodbury 16, S. Purdin 11, J. Hoggatt 8, J. Ojeda 4, C. Fritz 4, B. Price 4, X. Lizano 3, M. Guillozet 3 – TOTALS 26 1-6 6 71
FRANKLIN MONROE – A. Hines 15, E. Shellabarger 8, L. Shellabarger 4, O. Sease 2, J. Nichols 2 – TOTALS 9 4-11 3 31
3-POINTERS
Mississinawa Valley 6 (S. Purdin 3, T. Woodbury 2, M. Guillozet 1)
Franklin Monroe 3 (A. Hines 2, E. Shellabarger 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
21-20-20-10 71 Mississinawa Valley
12-06-10-03 31 Franklin Monroe
