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Mississinawa
Valley senior Devon Rinderle hits for two of his 19 points
in a 54-36 sectional win over
Houston. Rinderle also had 11 rebound for
the Hawks. CNO Photos By Dylan Knoop
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Mississinawa
Valley tops Houston in sectional game
Hawks to play Tuesday in second round
By George Starks
PIQUA-The date was February 26, 2011.
The site was Piqua High School in a 6 PM game opening round sectional
game with Mechnicsburg.
The final result…Mississinawa Valley 56, Mechnicsburg 42.
That game would be the last tournament win for the Blackhawks until
Friday night.
In the late game at Piqua, the Hawks were able to get the monkey of
their backs by taking Houston out of the picture with a 54-36 sectional
win.
Riding a six game winning streak, including a 55-44 victory at the
Hawks nest on Feb. 7 (the third of six straight), MV came into
sectional play as one of the hottest teams around.
It was a game where the Hawks took the early lead and never looked back.
Holding a slim 15-8 lead after one, Mississinawa Valley would take its
game to the next level in the second eight minutes.
Led by senior Devon Rinderle with 19 points and 11 rebounds (nine in
the second quarter), MV would double up on the Wildcats and would take
a commanding 29-15 lead at the half.
“This feels good,” said MV coach Tim Barga. “We knew Houston was going
to be a good ball club and we knew it would be a good game for us. We
know what’s in front of us.”
With defense always being a key for a Barga coached team, it was
rebounding that kept the Wildcats away from the Hawks on the scoreboard.
Overall, MV yanked down 25 boards with nine coming on the offensive
glass with the Hawks scoring no less than 15 points on put backs.
“Defense and rebounding is going to win games,” Barga stated. “They
didn’t get many second chance shots. We talked a lot about that on the
defensive end. You’ve got to have the ball before you can score. We had
five guys going to the boards on the defensive end and four on the
offensive end. We did a nice job and when Devon gets the ball, he wants
to get out and go but if you miss your first shot, where’s the second
one coming from? Usually it’s from two to four feet away so those were
key rebounds that were turned into points for us.”
Up 29-15 at the break, the Hawks started getting sloppy with the ball.
Through the opening 16 minutes, MV committed eight miscues but the
third quarter was a matching situation, as MV turned the ball over
eight times in the frame.
Again, it was solid defense that turned the trick as the Hawks led
36-27 after three quarters of play.
Behind Rinderle, senior Colyn Nelson netted 12 on a very quiet
night for him.
“He has the ability to catch the ball and shoot,” said Barga. “He
scored 12 for us and you never knew he was out there but we need him.
He played a lot of good defense. We put him on one of their best
players and I think the last 15-18 games, he played some pretty good
defense. He’s really come out of his shell.”
The Blackhawks salted things away in the final frame, coming out on a
10-2 run, taking a commanding 46-29 advantage with 5:41 remaining in
the game.
Now 16-7 and winners of seven straight, the Hawks will face another
tough Shelby County League team in Ft. Loramie, a 75-50 winner over
Mechnicsburg.
Tip-off is set for 7:30 pm.
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Senior
Dalton Geesy grabbed five rebounds with two being on the offensive
end for scores. Geesy finished with six points
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Sophomore Ethan Bowman unloads a trey for the Hawks. Bowman
accounted for eight MV points.
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