SIDNEY – The Mississinawa Valley Lady Blackhawks advance in OHSAA DIV tournament play with a convincing second-half running clock 74-31 win over the Troy Christian Lady Eagles.
“There are no more teams like this,” said Mississinawa Valley coach Michael Paige. “From now on, it’s every team is a good team from here forward, and you expect that by the time you get to the districts. It should be like that; that’s what the tournament is about. We just have to lock in; we’ve been here before, last year, so we know what it takes to get there, and we have to get ready for this next team.”
The Lady Hawks exploded to a 20-0 lead with 2:32 on the first quarter board. A Lady Eagles 3-pointer at 2:04 in the opening period made it a 20-3 game with the teams playing to a 28-5 score after one complete.
Brooklynn Seubert paced Mississinawa Valley with 12 first-quarter points including a 3-pointer and 1-1 at the charity stripe. Paige Emrick added eight points, including a trey and 1-1 at the free-throw line; Syenna Purdin added 4-points, including a triple and free-throw, and Taylee Woodbury and Cora Hoggatt each contributed a 2-point basket.
Period No. 2 saw the Lady Hawks take the quarter 22-13, led by nine Taylee Woodbury points, all coming from three 3-pointers; Seubert, 6 points; C. Hoggatt, 5 points; and Emrick, 2 points. The teams went to the break with Mississinawa leading 50-18.
The Lady Blackhawks put a second-half running clock in play at 6:26 in the third quarter with a 58-14 score. The scoring pace slowed down, with Mississinawa taking the third by a 9-2 score, including a Tenlee Woodbury 3-pointer, sending the game to the fourth with MV leading 59-20.
The final period of action went to the Lady Hawks 15-11, and Mississinwa Valley advanced to tournament play with a 43-point victory.
“Our thing is, be in their face, be in position, closeout, those are the things we need to work on because they still got a lot of open shots, especially in that fourth quarter,” Coach Paige said. “We had a little bit of a lead, so we got a little complacent. When we did that, they started hitting shots, and we can’t afford to do that against other teams.”
“Defensively, we still had some areas that we need to work on,” added Paige. “Obviously we had a lead, and everything looked good, but we’re looking forward to the next game and the next game. We need to fix some of the mistakes and some of the undisciplined that we had in certain areas today before we play Russia.”
Lady Hawks’ junior Brooklynn Seubert led Mississinawa Valley and all scorers with a game-high 24 points.
The MV Lady Blackhawks take on the Russia Lady Raiders coached by Michael Bayshore, 53-43 winners over Southeastern in a Saturday, February 22 game at Sidney High School with a 4 p.m. start time.
BOXSCORE:
MISSISSINAWA VALLEY 74, TROY CHRISTIAN 31
MISSISSINAWA VALLEY – B. Seubert 24, Taylee Woodbury 15, P. Emrick 10, C. Hoggatt 9, S. Purdin 8, E. Byram 3, Tenlee Woodbury 3, M. Hoggatt 2 – TOTALS 20 10-12 8 74
TROY CHRISTIAN – K. Miller 13, R. Wilkins 4, E. Waltz 4, N. Inman 3, L. Niles 3, R. Orange 2, L. Niles 2 – TOTALS 9 1-3 4 31
3-POINTERS
Mississinawa Valley 8 (Taylee Woodbury 3, E. Byram 1, Tenlee Woodbury 1, S. Purdin 1, P. Emrick 1, B. Seubert 1)
Troy Christian 4 (K. Miller 2, N. Inman 1, L. Niles 1)
SCORE by QUARTERS
28-22-09-15 74 Mississinawa Valley
05-13-02-11 31 Troy Christian
