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Mississinawa Valley senior Mackenzie Dirmeyer drives to the bucket
against Bethel Thursday in a Cross
County Conference battle. Dirmeyer
netted 17 points and pulled down 15 rebounds as the Lady
Hawks took a
57-33 decision over the visiting Bees. CNO Photos by Dylan Knoop
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Hawks freeze Bees in conference win
MV puts three in double figures
By George Starks
UNION CITY- “Sixteen uncontested shots. We missed 16 uncontested layups.”
Those were the opening thoughts of Mississinawa Valley Lady Blackhawks
coach Roger Collins Thursday after his team dumped a 57-33 Cross County
Conference loss on Bethel.
Absent from the lineup was sophomore point guard Kylie Willis who suffered a bad ankle sprain in practice Wednesday.
“We missed our point guard tonight,” admitted Collins. “She went down
yesterday and we had no chance to make an adjustment. She’ll be back in
eight to ten days. We should have won this game by 40 points.”
Holding a 15-11 lead after one, the Hawks committed five huge turnovers while defense was virtually non-existent.
While the Hawks defense was much improved in the second eight minutes,
and the offense started to click, the turnovers were haunting Collins.
The difference was the Bees were unable to take advantage of the six
turnovers (21 on the night). In the quarter the Hawks put up an amazing
25 points and held a whopping 40-20 lead at the break.
“We were fine once we settled down,” said Collins. “We have an eighth
grade mentality when we get that ball coming down the floor. We think
everybody is open. There could be three people between you and another
player and we think we can throw it through them. We missed too many
layups and that’s a lack of concentration. If you don’t concentrate all
the time, it’s not going to be there for you.”
To start the second quarter, Collins reverted back to his defensive
attack he used against Ansonia a week ago, switching up defenses.
Coming out in a 1-3-1 press, Collins started to switch up from that to a 1-2-2 to a 2-1-2 the back to the 1-3-1.
That attack created no less than 10 Bethel turnovers.
Turnovers that were converted into MV points.
In that frame, the Hawks went on a 19-0 run before Bethel’s Paige
Chaney drilled a trey at the 3:42 mark. By that point, the Hawks held a
commanding 34-14 lead.
“If these kids will play together in practice, and in every game they
play, they’re going to be tough,” Collins quipped. “Tonight, we didn’t
have a good game at all. I think it was poorly played.”
MV was led by Mackenzie Dirmeyer with 17 and 15 boards, as well as
Mikayla Stump with 13. Sophomore Kelsie Hunt added 10 points in support.
“We had three kids in double figures, so we have the firepower out
there,” said Collins. “Mackenzie is a good kid and a smart player. I
just want her to play like a senior, and she knows how to play the
game. She sees the floor better than anyone out there and she’s
All-Conference. She’s exciting to watch, and she doesn’t know how good
she is.”
Mississinawa Valley will host Covington today in another CCC clash.
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Sophomore Mikayla Stump drops in two of her 13 during second half action against Bethel.
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Mississinawa Valley coach Roger Collins tries to get a point across to
his team during a timeout.
Despite a 24-point margin of victory,
Collins wasn't pleased with the overall efforts of his team.
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