LEWISBURG — After two weeks off from game action, Tri-County North’s girls’ basketball team returned to the court and claimed a pair of wins.
North opened the week with a 54-17 win over Northridge on Wednesday, Jan. 5 then picked up a key Western Ohio Athletic Conference win over Franklin-Monroe on Thursday, 49-41.
Against Northridge, Mackenzie Bacher and Nicole Lefeld each scored 12 and Hannah Webster added 11. Nani Garcia chipped with nine and Rilee Terry contributed eight.
The Panthers closed out the week with a 43-31 setback to Dixie on Saturday, capping a stretch of three games in four days.
“Franklin Monroe was a good win for us,” North coach Jessica Spitler said. “We came out slow in the first half even though we kept the game at a tie. At halftime I told them it was time to turn up their game we were getting out rebounded and hustled on both ends of the court.”
Spitler said sophomore Hannah Webster really stepped up her game in the fourth quarter after a slow start. She scored 9 out of her 11 points and finished with nine rebounds.
Freshman Nani Garcia really had a big break through game for us pacing the Panthers with 15 points and 6 steals.
“She has really been working hard and figuring out the varsity game,” Spitler said. “She came out and really paced the Lady Panthers. We were in a slow in our inside game. But we were able to come out the second half and take control. Great team effort all across the board to get another WOAC league win.”
Against Dixie, Spitler felt her team may have been suffering from playing three games in four days.
“We came out going into Dixie with 3 games in 4 days. We knew that we would have to start out strong,” she said. “Our goal was mainly to stop their top player Sierra Brinson. We ran our defense around here and keeping her to two free throws in the first half. Sophomore Nicole Lefeld really had a tall task and kept her on her toes most of the game. Brinson averages 18 points and almost 10 rebounds and the ladies kept her at 11 points and 6 rebounds. Nicole did a great job and also was the leading scorer with 9 points. We went into halftime tied up 19-19 and unfortunately had a slow start into the second half with Dixie going on a 10-0 run. We then just kept playing from behind.”
Spitler said her team didn’t shoot the ball well.
“We had a poor shooting night and unfortunately it cost us the game.
“As a young team I keep reminding them we are going to have bumps in the road. We have to figure out how to finish all 4 quarters and I felt like we just ran out of steam against Dixie,” Spitler said. “I told them after the game ‘right now we are still building’. If we win a quarter, win a game, or stop a key player for the night that’s what we focus on and get better for the next game.”
Lefeld paced the Panthers with nine point and Terry added eight.
North (7-7, 2-5 WOAC) was scheduled to play Troy Christian on Tuesday, Jan. 11 and play at Newton on Thursday, Jan. 13.
Next game is Tuesday vs Troy Christian and Thursday another league game which is our main focus for this week vs Newton.
