PREBLE COUNTY – Three former Preble County basketball players helped lead their respective college basketball teams to national tournaments this past weekend.
Eaton’s Libby Springmier and Preble Shawnee’s Adrianna Moore helped Indiana University East to its first-ever national tournament appearance, where the Red Wolves lost 110-99 to Olivet Nazarene University in the first round of the NAIA Division II Women’s Basketball National Championship on March 10, at the Tyson Events Center in Sioux City, Iowa.
Springmier, a freshman, came off the bench to score 10 points and grab seven rebounds. Moore, also a freshman, finished with eight rebounds on the night.
The Red Wolves, ranked No. 31 and just in their second NAIA season, finished 22-10.
In high school, Springmier averaged 10 points, 2.8 assists and 2.2 steals per game as a senior to help the Eagles to a 21-4 season and a conference championship. She earned All-League and All-District honors for her performance.
Moore, a 1,000 point scorer in high school, was the Division III District 15 and Southwestern Buckeye League Buckeye Division Player of the Year as a senior at Preble Shawnee. She was also a first-team all-Southwest Ohio honoree and third-team all-Ohio selection. She averaged 16.9 points, 10.6 rebounds, 4.2 steals and 4.0 assists per game as a senior.
Eaton’s Autumn Whirley also helped guide her team, the Lawrence Tech University Blue Devils, to the same tournament.
Whirley, a freshman, scored seven points as 17th-ranked LTU (Michigan) suffered an 82-52 loss to No. 13 Cardinal Stritch (Wisconsin) University in the first round. The loss ends the Blue Devils’ season with a single-season school record of 24 wins.
While at Eaton, Whirley, who scored over 1,000 points in her career, averaged 11.9 points per game, shooting 45 percent from three-point range as a senior. She also had a two-to-one assist-to-turnover ratio and was often pinpointed in games as the shooter to stop, but still produced solid numbers all year.
