UNION CITY – The Mississinawa Valley girls basketball team overcame an 11-2, first quarter deficit and used a big 2nd and 4th quarter to pull out a 61-50 Western Ohio Athletic Conference win over Tri-Village.
Last year the Patriots escaped with a two-point win and ran the table in the league to earn the WOAC league championship and now it’s the Blackhawks looking to do the same thing this year in a quest to win their first WOAC league title.
Tri-Village connected on two triples from Mylee Bierly and Kaley Brandon and two fielders from Kenna Wilcox and Adalynn Hines to jump in front of Mississinawa whose lone score came from Taylee Woodbury with the PATS up 11-2.
Mississinawa Valley Coach Michael Paige wasn’t surprised that Tri-Village scored 11 points in the opening quarter as much as he was that his girls only had scored once.
“Only two points in the first quarter was surprising to me, because we score a lot of points, so for us to only have two, I think was due to our girls being nervous to start the game and it showed. Anytime you play Tri-Village you know they are a great team, and I don’t care who’s on the floor, Brad’s a good coach, and he’s going to have his team ready every game. So, we expected them to be ready and expected it to be a close game,” Paige commented.
True to form the Blackhawks came charging back putting up some big offense in the 2nd quarter that was more like what coach Paige expected.
They connected on 5 treys two each from Taylee Woodbury and Paige Emrick along with a triple from Brooklynn Seubert who had 8 points matching Woodbury to lead Mississinawa at the half.
The Hawks had cut into the Patriots lead and trailed by just three, 27-24 at the half.
Tri-Village not to be outdone dropped 4 triples in the 2nd frame two each from Kaley Brandon and Kenna Wilcox. Wilcox led the Patriots with 10 points and Brandon had 9 for TV at the break.
The 3rd quarter went back and forth keeping everyone upright and leaning forward from their bleacher seats with neither team backing down. It was intense as the Patriots clung to a two-point lead to end the 3rd quarter up 39-37.
In close games, a break or two here or there along with players rising to the occasion, generally is what it takes to get a win, and both of those things happened in the 4th quarter, all in favor of the home team.
After Adalynn Hines scored on back-to-back layups to knot the score at 43, she would foul out of the game at the 4:40 mark leaving the Patriots down a solid defender, ballhandler and scoring option giving the Hawks a big break.
Mississinawa Valley senior Syenna Purdin who was in foul trouble of her own in the 1st half (3) was unable to get in the flow of the game and became one of the players to step up late, especially in the 4th quarter when the team needed her most.
The Hawks having a significant size advantage were a little more intentional about looking to get the ball inside.
Brooklynn Seubert, Cora Hoggatt and Purdin all score inside. Back-to-back scores from Purdin and Hoggatt gave the Blackhawks a 47-43 lead with 3:17 to go.
The Patriots hung around getting two on a hard drive to the basket from Tai Mize to close to 47-45.
However, TV fouled Purdin, and she calmly sank both charity tosses, something she would do eight times in the 4th quarter.
The Patriots closed to 49-47 on two free throws from Kenna Wilcox with 1:15 to play … but they would get no closer.
Purdin on two straight trips added 4 more free throws to increase the Hawks’ lead to 55-47.
Tri-Village connected on a triple from Mize at the top of the key with 40 seconds left closing the gap 55-50 … but time and opportunities were getting away from the Patriots as Mississinawa closed out the game on a 6-0 run to seal the victory 61-50.
After the game coach Paige talked about the 4th quarter and taking advantage of their size.
“With the matchups that were on the floor, and we know they can shoot, and it was kind of a shootout most of the game … but at some point, we were kind of like, okay, where’s our advantage? It was our size. So, we were like okay, let’s start going down low,” Paige explained.
The combination of size and intentionally looking to get the ball inside along with 2nd and 3rd opportunities would be the difference in the game.
Tri-Village coach Brad Gray would allude to the fact their size and rebounding played a key role in the outcome.
“We said there were two things we had to do, limit turnovers and defensive rebounds and we didn’t do that, we had too many turnovers (17) … but the rebounding was way more detrimental than turnovers, especially in the fourth quarter,” Gray stated.
“I mean, we’re up 10 in the first half, and we can’t rebound the ball. They scored a lot of points tonight off turnovers and rebounds,” Gray said.
“Our first shot defense the majority of the night was excellent. But when you’re giving teams two, three, four opportunities to go score, somebody’s eventually going to put one in,” Gray added.
Mississinawa had 17 offensive rebounds compared to just four for the Patriots.
Coach Gray felt like his team played well enough to win but losing his best player with four minutes to go in the game made it difficult.
“I mean, it was a close game both teams going back and forth and momentum shifting in both directions at times, but when your best player goes out with four minutes, we just can’t have that happen, unfortunately for us, it cost us a league title,” Gray alluded.
“Give them credit they are a good basketball team, and it was a great girls’ high school basketball game with a great atmosphere,” Gray said.
On the other side of the court, Mississinawa Valley used their senior experience to navigate the 4th quarter despite having some foul trouble of their own.
“We have a couple of four-year players who have big game experience, and that experience showed up for us tonight,” Paige stated.
“Taylor Woodbury played the 4th quarter with four fouls … she’s really a smart player and knows how to play D without fouling and she knew the situation, obviously Tri-Village was trying to get her to pick up that fifth … but it didn’t happen,” Paige said.
“Syenna Purdin is a four-year varsity player, who steps up in big moments and she saw that she had a size advantage and decided to go down low and make things happen. I think that’s the good thing about our team this year, having so many seniors, even the ones that don’t play a lot, gives us leadership on the floor. Gives us experience. They know how to do certain things that they wouldn’t have known a couple of years ago and if we keep playing like that, we’re going to be hard to beat,” Paige praised.
When asked about what it meant to win a big WOAC conference game coach Paige had this to say.
“Well, I mean, there’s conference games and then there’s a game against Tri-Village. It’s very different. I mean, they’re good we know they were going to be good. And anytime you can get a win over a really good team, I mean, you take it and keep moving on and get ready for the next one,” Paige concluded.
Box Score
Score by Quarter
TV – 11 … 16 … 12 … 11 – 50
MV – 02 .. 20 … 13 … 24 – 61
Individual Scoring
TV: Tai Mize 1-3-1/4 – 10, Mylee Bierly 2-0-0/0 – 6, Kaley Brandon 3-0-0/0 – 9, Kenna Wilcox 2-3-2/2 – 14, Adalynn Hines 1-3-2/4 – 11; Totals 9-9-5/10 – 50
MV: Tenlee Woodbury 0-0-2/2 – 2, Taylee Woodbury 2-1-5/6 – 13, Makenna Hoggatt 0-0-2/2 – 2, Syenna Purdin 1-2-8/8 – 15, Cora Hoggatt 0-2-0/2 – 4, Paige Emerick 2-2-0/0 – 10, Brooklynn Seubert 1-5-2/6 – 15; Totals 6-12-19/26 – 61
TV – T/O; 7, REB 25; 4 off, 21 def, Steals; 4, Assist 10; FG% 18/46 – 39%, FT% 5/10 – 50%
MV – T/O; 10, REB 34; 17 off, 17 def, Steals; 9, Assist 8, FG% 18/56 – 32%, FT% 19/26 – 73%
