By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

UNION CITY — The Lady Blackhawks took an undefeated Parkway High School to the wire, but couldn’t finish the job at home. The Mississinawa Valley girls’ basketball team lost 46-53 to the Lady Panthers on Dec. 5.

Head Coach Michael Paige pointed out one main reason why his team fell just short of the win.

“We hurt ourselves with boxing out and rebounding. I think they killed us on the glass, I’ll have to look at the stats to be sure,” Paige said.

Mississinawa Valley started out slow, but found their rhythm after the first quarter. They had a three-point lead after the first quarter and were building on it to start the second quarter.

The defense started to give Parkway some trouble once they settled in. The transition offense and the half-court offense started to give the Lady Blackhawks room to breathe on the scoreboard.

But, Parkway kept fighting. Once Mississinawa Valley gained a six point lead, the Lady Panthers went on a 5-0 run to make it a 24-23 game. The first half ended with Mississinawa Valley holding onto a 29-28 lead.

It was a battle between two great players offensively, one from each team. For Parkway, Gabrielle Stober had 15 points. For Mississinawa Valley, sophomore Taylee Woodbury had 15 points.

Then the Lady Panthers started to make their presence felt on the glass. They started to take advantage of their second chance opportunities and kept the game close.

A last second shot by Woodbury tied the game up at 37-37 heading into the fourth quarter. From there, it seemed liked everything went against the Lady Blackhawks.

Parkway started to frustrate Mississinawa Valley offensively. The Lady Blackhawks couldn’t find any consistency in the fourth quarter. Untimely turnovers started to pop up for Mississinawa Valley.

The Lady Panthers continued to crash the offensive glass as they grabbed a lead in the middle of the fourth quarter.

Then some injuries started to pile on Mississinawa Valley. They had a couple of players leave the game with injury. Parkway took advantage of the short-handed Lady Blackhawks and went on to close the game out.

Woodbury finished the game with 24 points as Stober finished with 30 points. Senior Jocelyn Hoggatt finished second for Mississinawa Valley in points with seven.

Paige said the team is dealing with some injuries and some are getting over an illness. Once the team can get back to 100%, they can continue to elevate their game.

“We got a few things we need to work on here and there, but I think we’re right there where we need to be,” Paige said.

Mississinawa Valley will travel to National Trail on Dec. 8 for a conference matchup. Both teams are 1-1 in conference play so far.