By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

DARKE COUNTY — Here are the girls basketball scores and stats from around the county from the first week of action, Nov. 22-29.

Arcanum 51 at Fort Recovery 44

The Lady Trojans started their 2023-24 campaign with a road win at Fort Recovery. They had a 30-23 lead at halftime thanks to eight made threes in the first half.

Head coach Abbey Moore said once the team started to work off the rust, they started to get into a groove.

“Once we started knocking down a few shots, coming up with a few defensive stops that started to give us a little bit of momentum and a little bit of confidence,” Moore said.

Senior Ashlyn Miller and junior Alexis Gibbons both had three made three-pointers in the game. Moore said Miller stepped up early to get the team going early and then everyone picked it up after.

Moore also said Gibbons showed great leadership in this game and was encouraged to see that leadership so early on in the season.

Fort Recovery claimed the lead in the third quarter after outscoring the Lady Trojans, 15-5. Moore said it was their adversity quarter and a teaching moment for them.

“I think we got a little complacent and okay with where we were. Then the mistakes started to happen,” Moore said. “We got to know the situation, but we got to think that score is even ball game and come out with a little bit more energy and fire in that third quarter.”

In the fourth quarter, Arcanum started to cool off from the three-point line and started to attack the rim. With 4:47 left in the game, sophomore Caroline Long made a layup to give Arcanum a 43-42 lead. The rest of the way, Arcanum held Fort Recovery scoreless.

Miller and Gibbons led the team with 15 points. Long led with 13 rebounds as the team had 26. As a team, Arcanum shot 43.5% from three-point.

Arcanum will host Minster on Dec. 5 with the JV starting at 6 p.m. with the varsity to follow. They will then travel to Ansonia on Dec. 7 for with the JV starting at 6 p.m. before they host Fort Loramie on Dec. 9 for a 1 p.m. start.

A full game recap can be found on our website, dailyadvocate.com.

Greenville 23 vs Sidney 46

The Lady Wave finish the first week of the season with a 2-1 record. They opened with a 72-42 win over Eaton to start the season. Freshman Megan Loudy had 20 points and junior Brooke Schmidt had 19 points. They followed that win with a 33-30 win at Indian Lake. Junior Megan Lind led with 13 points and had a double-double with 11 rebounds.

The Lady Wave struggled to open up the first half against the defending MVL champions in Sidney. The defensive pressure from the Lady Yellow Jackets got to the Lady Wave early.

Head coach Rachel Kerns said with a young team, they will have highs and lows throughout the season. Going up against a veteran, guard led team showed they are still growing.

“Sidney has three incredible guards and they would play for any team in our conference. When you are a young team, I said very early on we’re going to take two steps forward, take a step forward and two steps back. This is your perfect example of it,” Kerns said.

Things started to turn around in the second half. After being down 28-4 at halftime, Greenville outscored Sidney, 19-18.

The zone defense by Greenville gave Sidney problems. Kerns said sophomore Jayda Lyons was incredible on defense. Lyons held junior Jordan Scully to three points with Scully scoring seven points without Lyons on her.

Scully was coming off a 20-point game in Sidney’s season opening win over Russia.

“She scored four points when Jayda wasn’t in. She hit a shot right at the end of the quarter. She got zero clean shots off of Jayda. I think she hit seven shots in game one and I don’t know if she got seven clean looks tonight,” Kerns said. “Kudos to Jayda, that’s a hard task to do.”

The one thing Kerns said her team can take away from this game was the need for more girls to be ball handlers. Junior Avery Baumann is the only point guard on the team. Kerns said it’s a whole other element for the girls to want the ball and make a play versus just coming down the court and setting a screen or just shooting the ball.

But as Kerns pointed out, they will have time to develop those skills as the majority of this team will return next season.

While it wasn’t perfect, the Lady Wave showed improvement this game. They shook off a rough first half and competed in the second half.

“I was hoping to compete a little bit more. But, if you tell me we had the second half that we have before the game starts, I’m going to say, ‘You know what, with such a young team that’s probably an okay thing.’ Frustrated because I know we can play better than what we did in the first half,” Kerns said.

Greenville will travel to Butler on Dec. 8 for their next game. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.

A full game recap can be found on our website, dailyadvocate.com.

Around the county:

Bradford:

The Lady Railroaders lost their first two games of the season, but have improved from game to game. They lost at Milton Union, 57-24. After being down 37-7 at halftime, Bradford scored 17 points in the second half and held the Lady Bulldogs to 20 points. Senior Brooklyn Crickmore and sophomore Ryleigh Dotson both had nine points to lead the team.

Bradford lost at Fairlawn, 46-37. They had a 23-15 lead at halftime before the Lady Jets came back and scored 22 points in the third quarter. Freshman Vivian Harleman led with 14 points coming off the bench. Crickmore had a double-double with 10 points and 14 rebounds.

Bradford will host East Dayton Christian on Dec. 2 at 6 p.m. followed by a game against Middletown Christian on Dec. 5 at 6 p.m.

Franklin Monroe:

The Lady Jets lost their season opener, 57-16, at Legacy Christian. After letting up 20 points in the first quarter, the Lady Jets didn’t allow more than 15 points in the remaining quarters.

Franklin Monroe will host Houston on Dec. 2 starting at 11 a.m. followed by a trip to Dayton Christian on Dec. 4 at 6 p.m.

Mississinawa Valley:

The Lady Blackhawks lost 43-38 at Fort Recovery. They were outscored, 25-17, in the second half. The team shot 26.7% from the field in the game. Sophomore Paige Emrick led the team with nine points. Junior Syenna Purdin had eight points and senior Brenna Price and sophomore Brooklynn Seubert each had seven points.

Mississinawa Valley will travel to Russia on Dec. 2 for another non-conference game.

Tri-Village:

The Lady Patriots picked up where they left off with a 55-11 win over Bethel. Sophomore Kynnedi Hager led the team with 18 points. Senior Bella Black had 12 points. The most points Bethel scored in a quarter was four in the second quarter.

Tri-Village will travel to Trotwood Madison on Dec. 2 with tipoff set for 12:15 p.m. They will then host Mississinawa Valley on Dec. 7 at 7:15 p.m.

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