North Fayette Valley sophomore Rebecca “Becca” Miller flips the ball around an MFL/MM player for two of her nine points in Friday’s (Jan. 17) loss to the Bulldogs. Miller’s left-handed layup for the lead with 18.8 seconds remaining hit the rim but bounced off. (Jerry Wadian photo)

Gals lose pair by 1 point each

By Jerry Wadian
Sports Editor
jwadian@thefayettecountyunion.com

It was a week that could have been a real boost for the North Fayette Valley girls’ basketball team. Just two more points per game and the TigerHawks would have racked up two UIC wins, rather than fall to 2-5 in the conference.

The TigerHawks lost at Elkader on Monday, Jan. 13 and at home on Friday by one point in each game. Elkader won, 39-38, and the MFL/MM Bulldogs went home with a 40-39 victory.

Saturday’s makeup game with South Winn was again postponed by the weather; it will be played Saturday, Jan. 25 in Calmar.

In Monday’s road game, NFV had to rally from an 11-2 deficit at the end of the first quarter.

The TH gals tried hard, outscoring the Warriors by four in both the second and third quarters.

The TigerHawks were down by three with nine seconds to play but could only get two instead of the trey that they needed.

Regan Wolverton led the TH scoring with 10 points. Hanna Moser and Shelby Lehmann each put in eight points. Lehmann led the effort on the glass with eight boards.

NFV 2 11 13 12 38

CE 11 7 9 12 39

NFV (38)- Wolverton, 10; Moser, 8; Lehmann, 8; Rounds, 5; Miller, 4; Daughton, 2; Mackey. 3-pointers- Rounds. Rebounds- Lehmann, 8; Moser, 3; Miller, 2; Wolverton, 2; Daughton, 2; Rounds.  Assists- Miller. Steals- Wolverton, 2; Miller, Lehmann. Blocks- Daughton, 2; Miller, Lehmann.

Friday’s game was another heartbreaker. Once again, NFV fell behind early, trailing by five, 11-6, at the end of the first quarter.

NFV still trailed by five entering the final eight minutes of play. Then, the TigerHawks started to rally.

A Becca Miller free throw narrowed the gap to 38-37 with 3:08 to play. Neither team could score for almost three more minutes.

With 18.8 seconds to go, Miller drove the lane, but her left-handed layup bounced off the rim and fell out. Thirteen seconds later, MFL/MM hit a pair of free throws; NFV settled for a two and didn’t get to foul over the final 5.2 seconds.

Kim Rounds and Lehmann led the TigerHawks with 11 and 10, points, respectively. Miller added nine points. Lehmann led the rebounding effort with eight boards.

MM 11 10 13 6 40

NFV 6 11 12 10 39

NFV (39)- Rounds, 11; Lehmann, 10; Miller, 9; Wolverton, 5; Moser, 2; Daughton, 2. 3-pointers- Wolverton, Rounds. Rebounds- Lehmann, 8; Moser, 5; Miller, 3; Wolverton, 2; Mackey, 2, Daughton; Assists- Mackey, 2; Miller. Steals- Miller, 3; Rounds, 3; Daughton, Moser. Blocks- Moser, 2; Lehmann, 2.

After the week was over, head coach Sean Leonard said, “On the plus side, we played extremely hard in both games. However, turnovers continue to plague us. We have an extremely young team that is putting themselves in a position to win; we are just struggling to learn how to win.

“If we played these two games a month or more, I think we would have lost them both by 10-15 points, so we are inching forward, but I would like to see us jump forward a foot or so,” the coach closed.