PITSBURG – The Mississinawa Valley girls basketball team doubled their first half offensive output in the second half to take control of a close game with Franklin Monroe and then went on to claim a 60-34 win in a Western Ohio Athletic Conference game.
The Jets entered the game down 3 players including 2 starters giving an opportunity for a couple of three freshman players to get playing time: Kyra Barnes, Presley Cox and Maura Yount.
Franklin Monroe would hold an 8-6 on back-to-back buckets from senior Skylar Bauman at 1:49 in the opening quarter but the Hawks fired back on a triple from freshman point guard Taylee Woodbury and a free throw from Jocelyn Hoggatt for a 10-8 first quarter lead.
In the 2nd quarter the game was fast paced but not very sharp with lots of turnovers and missed lay-ups and it was the Blackhawks taking a 19-18 lead at the break.
Mississinawa spread the offense around in the 3rd quarter and jumped ahead 31-18 creating separation with 6 girls scoring and 19 points while holding Franklin Monroe to just 11 points. The Jets closed the gap a little and trailed 38-29 going into the final stanza.
The Blackhawks then clamped down on defense in the final period holding the Jets to just 5 points while exploding for 22 winning the game 60-34.
Taylee Woodbury had the hot hand with back-to-back triples scoring 10 in the quarter and 19 for the game to lead all scorers.
“We started off kind of slow and really slopping tonight but our defense was much better in 2nd half, and we were able to generate some offense from it,” Mississinawa Valley coach Michael Paige said.
“We talked at halftime about staying disciplined on defense. We have talent but we don’t have a lot of experience winning games, so we have to learn to be disciplined and we settled down in the second half and let them make mistakes instead of trying to force everything,” Paige added.
Coach Paige had high praise for his freshman point guard Taylee Woodbury as well.
“Taylee played well tonight, scoring 19 points, she’s trying to adjust to the speed of the game at the high school level, no doubt she is the glue to our team. Some nights she is going to distribute for us and other nights she is going to score and as she gets more experience she will be more consistent,” Paige praised.
The Hawks were led by Woodbury with 19 points and 13 from senior Mattie Hiestand and 9 from Alyson Byram. 9 girls scored for Mississinawa.
“We believe as coaches we are 10 deep and we’re going to play a lot of girls every night,” Paige said.
With 9 girls in the scoring column, it proved out what coach Paige believes.
With the win the Hawks improved to 3-1 on the year overall and 1-1 in the conference. They will play Yellow Springs on Saturday.
Franklin Monroe was led by Skylar Bauman with 14 points, the Jets fall to 1-4 overall and 1-1 in the conference and will host Houston on December 7th.
Box Score
Score By Quarters:
MV 10 9 19 22 60
FM 8 10 11 5 34
Individual Scoring
MV: Byram 9, Woodbury 19, Hoggatt 6, Price 3, M. Townsend 2, Purdin 3, Stachler 6, Hiestand 13, K. Townsend 1; Totals 6-18-6/14 – 60
FM: Barnes 5, Cox 4, Bauman 14, Yount 2, Shellabarger 5, Sease 4; Totals 1-10-11/24 – 34
