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Mississinawa
Valley's Hope Neargarder fights for a rebound against Ansonia junior
Catey Fischer
Thursday in Cross County Conference action at Ansonia. The Lady Hawks
won the contest 37-35.
CNO photos by Dylan Knoop
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MV
struggles against scrappy Ansonia team
Hawks hold on
for two point victory
By George Starks
ANSONIA- “We are very fortunate to get the victory tonight.”
Those were the words of first year Mississinawa Valley head coach Todd
Murphy after his Lady Hawks squeaked out a narrow 37-35 victory over
Ansonia Thursday in Cross County Conference action.
After dropping their first three games of the season, St. Henry, Russia
and Minster, the win was much needed by Murphy and his team.
“This was a big confidence boost for us,” said Murphy. “A win against a
rival like Ansonia is a good boost for the Lady Hawks.”
Trailing 27-26 heading into the final quarter, the Hawks went to work
on offense, scoring 10 unanswered points to start the frame, taking a
36-27 advantage.
While the points were being scored, it was mostly generated by a man
press that Murphy put into action.
A press that paid dividends for the visitors from Union City.
“The press turned the trick,” said Murphy. “We’ve not gotten to use it
much this year but the girls have found ways to make it work and it
turned the momentum in our favor.
On offense for the Tigers, junior Catey Scholl was a force of one,
scoring 16 points while pulling down 12 rebounds.
“We had a tough time getting her stopped and she got a couple of our
girls into foul trouble,” Murphy admitted.
Late in the game, Murphy lost Hope Neargarder and Maddie Murphy to
fouls with the biggest loss being that of Murphy, who fouled out with
4:19 remaining in the game.
A big blow to the Hawks attack.
“Losing her to fouls concerned me a little but I know we have some
upperclassman on the bench that could step in and make plays when we
needed them,” said Murphy. “These girls do it everyday in practice and
we continue to find windows for them to be successful.”
When Ansonia coach Amber Short looks over her team on film, several
things will jump out at her but one thing she won’t need to see is her
team’s foul shooting.
The scorebook tells the story as the Tigers were a decent 17 of 26 from
the line (65.4 percent).
In that statistic, Ansonia missed four straight foul shots, a huge
difference in the outcome.
“We lost this game by one possession,” said Short. “We went to the foul
line and I stressed to them the importance of making those shots. We
missed nine shots at the line but we lost by two and I told them
(Ansonia) we lost by one possession. Missed free throws are always
going to haunt you though.”
In the junior varsity game, Greenville graduate Macie Blinn was
presented with her first win as a head coach as her Mississinawa Valley
Blackhawks rolled to a 36-15 victory over Ansonia.
Now 1-3, Mississinawa Valley will host Bethel next Thursday while the
0-3 Lady Tigers will battle St. Henry today at noon on the Redskins
home floor.
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Ansonia's
Brooke Neal works the ball up the floor as the Hawks Victoria Humphries
defends.
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Former
Greenville star Macie Blinn watches her team in the junior varsity game
Thursday.
Blinn got her first win as a coach as MV posted a 36-15 victory.
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