Arrows Fall

Winning their opening game in the state tournament 57-52 against Milton Union, Preble Shawnee advanced to the second round where they ran into a buzz saw in Versailles - a perennial basketball powerhouse and a top ten ranked team in the state.   The Tigers used a press against the Arrows and with a deep bench, they kept a stream of fresh players in revolving door fashion on the court.  Although the players were gamers to the end, they would fall 84-34.

It has been a tumultuous season the Preble Shawnee Girls basketball team.  Short on numbers, they decided to forgo a Junior Varsity team and just play a varsity only schedule.  By seasons end the team had one senior, one junior, and the balance were freshman and sophomores. Then due to illness and injury they went on a streak where they played 6 games in a row with just 6 players.  Still the team overcame adversity and ended the season with a winning record. 

Coach Joe Webster had this to say after the game, “Nobody had thought that we would win what we have won.   You guys can’t win, you won’t win.  But we proved them wrong by winning 13 games – not too bad with this young group of kids.  But we ran into one of the top teams in the state here.  We are 5 foot nothing and they are 6 foot plus. “

The seniors, “We lost Sydney Steele earlier in this season with a broken foot.  But Mattie Woodard is primarily a soccer player, but came back to play basketball.  She’s a soccer player playing basketball but she still excelled. She exceeded her expectations and mine.  She will compete on any night, against anybody – she has that kind of heart.  It’s going to be hard to replace that.  She shows the younger kids on the court that this is the way that this game is to be played. She was first team all league, nominated for the district team, and first team upperclassman on the district team. We will miss her and her heart to compete that’s the biggest thing with Mattie. ” 

Scoring for Shawnee: Woodard 17, Moore 9, Walker 6, Wilson 2

Saving the Best for Last

The Twin Valley South girls basketball regular season drew to a close earlier this week. They were able to close out the season on a winning note with a victory over Jefferson.   So this lights a little glimmer of hope for the future.  It was a one point game at the break, but the team made some half time adjustments and were able to pull away with a comfortable win 46-36.

Coach Mabry talked after the game, “We have not had a lot of real tight games, but when it came down to the 4^th quarter they learned how to hold onto a victory – I am proud of them. “ I asked about the change at halftime: “We were just excited about being in a competitive game. So I settled them down, reinforced what we needed to do – we were 0 for 7 from the foul line in the first half for instance but we did better in the second half.  Defensively we saw that that they had one fairly decent player and we did a box and one on her, which slowed her down. “

The locker room after the game, “It was more subdued than what you would think.  The locker rooms are close here and we didn’t want to show them up by doing a whole lot of screaming and yelling.  There was some jumping and down – but yeah they were excited.”  

Scoring for TVS:  Bolton 10, Bingham 2, Megan Wright 5, Madison Wright 8, Horton 2, Hutchins 6, Schwaberow 13. South plays in the state tournament Wednesday at Brookville against Bradford at 6pm.