TVS Searching for a Win

The young Twin Valley South Lady Panthers are still searching for their first win of the season.  The team played their best game this week against Milton Union.  But against league rival Tri-County North, the squad was flat and just were not able to generate very much offense.  Meanwhile North’s offense was in high gear and won pulling away.

Against West Milton the team had a bad first quarter.  But recovered somewhat in the second half and played even with the Bulldogs.  But the damage had been done and South wasn’t able to make any sort of a run finally going down 55-40.  Senior Kacy Bolton lead Panther scoring with 13 points and Hailey Keener was also in double figures with 11.  Others scoring for the team:  Megan Wright 2, Madison Wright 6, Emily Hutchings 3, Sydney Vorhis 5.  Against North the team did not score in double figures in any quarter – falling 61-24.  Hailey Keener lead South with 10 points, continuing her streak of games where she has scored at least 10 or more.

“Against West Milton we just turned the ball over too much in the first quarter.” Stated coach Mabry after the game, “The rest of the game we kind of came alive a little bit and fought back. We cut down their momentum but just never could get back to a reasonable point where we had a real shot at mounting a comeback.  It’s a young team and they threw some stuff at the girls that they were not expecting and when you’re young and inexperienced it takes a while for them to adjust – they are still learning.  And Bolton had a good game points wise, it was one of her better shooting games.”

The North game, “I don’t think we were ready to play.  We came out with no energy, we fell behind and couldn’t get anything flowing at all. They pressed us, but we seemed to handle that.  But we really didn’t execute anything at the half court offensively.  And on defense we seemed to be a step slow.”

Looking forward, “Sarah Bingham is back – at least part time from her injury. So that is going to help with numbers,  the girls basically have to play two games in one night [Junior Varsity and Varsity].  The bench is being squeezed, there are some quarters where I do not have a sub because the girls on the bench have no more quarters to give.  But this coming week we have Preble Shawnee and then Jefferson on Saturday and both of them have Varsity only.  That will help me with rotations and keeping girls fresh.”

South Falls Short Against Valley View

View or Purchase Game Pics

Twin Valley South again is playing shorthanded this week. But they gave a good accounting of themselves against a bigger and deeper Valley View team.  Seth Baker played a whale of a game, scoring 26 points for South a personal career high.   South kept the game close for most of the night and in the last minute made the game exciting as they battled intensely to tie the ball game and force an overtime.  But they were unable to connect and fell just short – 50 to 47.

Valley View was able to play around with their lineups and opened the game with a small, quick lineup. Although the Spartans tried to beat TVS down the court in transition, the scoring was slow in the early going.  So Valley View went to a taller lineup midway thru the quarter. This change made a difference as South was not shooting well from outside and the extra height made a difference on the boards as Valley View got second chance shots.  This gave Valley View a 17 – 10 lead as the first quarter ended with Spartan trey at the buzzer.

When Valley View lengthened their lead to 11 points, Coach Augspurger took a timeout at the two minute mark and the team responded with nice run.  At the break the Spartan lead had been trimmed to 5 points.  The team opened with some sloppy play in the 3rd quarter, giving up some easy turnovers.  And things began to look dicey when Seth Baker, who had been playing well, got his third foul midway through the quarter.  But South was able to stay on the heels of Valley View into the 4^th quarter.

In the 4^th quarter South made a determined charge at the Spartans.  They closed the gap to a single point about midway through the quarter.  Valley View extended their lead back out and so South who had been in a zone – changed over to full court man to man with 2 minutes left and resorted to fouling.  And Valley View couldn’t find the rim, but South was unable to convert those rebounds into points at the other end of the court.  South had several chances to tie, and although they hit iron – their shots just wouldn’t drop.  

“We were shorthanded and missing several key components,” stated coach Augspurger after the game.  “We’re making changes and making adjustments.  Our players that played did an excellent job. We competed, but we just didn’t rebound well enough. They made some shots and they shot a little better than I expected.  But the biggest thing is that we let them have too many second chances. If we had rebounded better, I think we would have walked out of here with a W. We put ourselves into a position to win it, but we just couldn’t do it there in the last minute. But I am pleased with our effort and I am pleased with our intensity.”