By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

UNION CITY — It was an up and down game for the Lady Blackhawks, but they still were in control all game against Houston High School on Jan. 30. The Mississinawa Valley High School girls basketball team won 46-35 at home.

Head coach Michael Paige said the team haven’t been able to practice much recently. That has led to the team making some uncharacteristic mistakes.

“We struggled in a lot of areas tonight. I think we’ve got some things we definitely need to work on. We haven’t had a lot of practice recently. Right before Preble, our practice got cancelled because of weather and then we had the Preble game,” Paige said. “We haven’t had a chance to really get into practice and work on some of these little things that we’re starting to make the mistakes in. We just got to get back to practice and fix some of the stuff.”

At halftime, Mississinawa Valley was up 20-15. They barely trailed in the game, but couldn’t get into a rhythm to take over the game.

The Lady Blackhawks did go cold in stretches on offense. Besides the missed shots, they had a few too many turnovers; more than they’re used to. A positive was the offensive rebounds. They were able to get extra opportunities by crashing the offensive glass.

In the second half, the offense had better stretches of play. The shots started to fall in more often. But, they still had some inconsistent play.

After the third quarter, Mississinawa Valley was up 34-23. The defense was getting more turnovers in the second half which allowed them to run the floor offensively.

Overall, Paige wasn’t happy with the defensive effort. He said Houston came out with more effort with his team not putting up effort on the defensive end. At times, Houston was able to go down the court and score with ease.

Mississinawa Valley did go on a late run to extend their lead and seal the win. Junior MacKenzea Townsend led the team with 15 points. Sophomore Taylee Woodbury was second with 13 points.

While the Lady Blackhawks did get the win, they can learn a lot from their mistakes in this game. It’s a chance to regroup and get back to what was working for this team not too long ago.

“We just got to get our effort together and get back focused on doing the little things that get us wins and got us to where we are right now,” Paige said.

Paige also said they will be able to get back into practice this week to fix their issues and focus on the next game ahead. They will travel to Dixie on Feb. 2 for their last WOAC game of the season. The Lady Blackhawks are currently 17-3 with an 8-2 conference record.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected].