EATON — A cold shooting night and too many turnovers proved costly for Eaton’s girls’ basketball team in a 54-19 loss to Valley View, the defending Southwestern Buckeye League Southwestern Division champion, on Thursday, Nov. 29.
Eaton shot 19.5 percent (8-of-41) from the field, including going 4-for-31 over the last three quarters, and committed 29 turnovers. They struggled at the free throw line as well going 2-for-13.
“Valley View is really good. They have the experience and they know how to win,” Eaton coach Dave Honhart said. “I was proud of the way our kids battled early.”
The Eagles (1-2, 0-1 SWBL) fell behind 7-0 less than three minutes into the game while committing turnovers on three of their first four possessions.
Eaton made a run to close the gap to 7-5 on a pair of free throws from Bailey Shepherd and a three-pointer from Annika Gels and eventually tied the game at 11-11 with 2:18 to play in the first. Shepherd scored eight of her team-high 10 points in the quarter.
From there it was a struggle offensively for the hosts.
The Spartans led 15-11 after one and held a 16-13 lead with 4:54 to play in the first half.
Eaton went nearly 11 minutes before it scored again.
Valley View went on a 24-0 run to take a 40-13 lead with 2:36 left in the third. A basket by Lexi Miller ended the Eagles drought at the 2:02 mark to make it 40-15.
“Basketball can be a really tough game to play at the defensive end when you’re just not clicking and finishing on offense,” Honhart said. “Unfortunately, against a team like Valley View you just can’t let up on the defensive end.”
In addition to her 10 points, Shepherd added eight rebounds and four steals.
Miller tallied four points and three rebounds.
Emily Dungan had four rebounds and four steals, while Becca Mowen and Allison Mowen each had four rebounds.
“Our players played hard, but we’ve got to take better care of the basketball and finish around the rim, make throws,” Honhart said. “We have to become better in the half court. Against a team that we can run and press we’re going to have a lot of success. To beat the best teams you have to be able to play half court D and you’ve got to be able to score in the half court. That’s just a matter of improving skill, improving execution and that falls on us as coaches to teach our tails off. It will carry over into games, but sometimes you just have bad shooting nights.”
Eaton was scheduled to play at Middletown Madison on Monday, Dec. 3. The Eagles will also travel to Brookville on Thursday and will host Oakwood on Saturday.
