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Mississinawa
Valley junior Hope Neargarder attempts to save the ball
during first half action at Mississinawa Valley
Tuesday. The Hawks went
to 4-5 on the season with a 55-31 victory over Fairlawn. CNO Photo by
George Starks
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MV gets past
turnovers in victory
By George Starks
UNION CITY- Despite 21 turnovers staring them in the face, the
Mississinawa Valley Lady Blackhawks had little to worry about Tuesday
against Fairlawn.
The Lady Jets kicked the ball away 32 times as the Hawks rolled to a
55-31 non-conference victory.
Even though the final score was lopsided, it never started out that way
as the Hawks could muster just eight first quarter points.
“We started out very slow,” said MV coach Rodney Saintignon. “I wasn’t
very happy and our shooting was off. Our shooting percentage was way
down and that’s one of the things that’s been a curse we’ve had all
year long. We got the shots, they just weren’t falling. I told the
girls our first quarter is our worst quarter. We look good the rest of
the game, we just don’t come out strong like we should. It’s the worst
quarter for us every game.”
Up 8-1 after one, the Hawks offense started to roll as the defense was
clicking.
At the end of the half, the Hawks held a commanding 22-7 lead as the
defense continued to gel, giving up a mere 14 points through three
frames.
“I though our defense was solid tonight,” Saintignon admitted. “Mallory
Livingston had a lot of steals underneath. Our plan on defense was to
make them make the long pass and get Mallory in there to take it away
and it worked out well, I thought we played hard defense tonight. I was
pleased with our defense tonight.”
Led by senior Chelsie Saintignon with 14 points and junior Maddie
Murphy with 13, the vast majority of the Hawks points came in
transition off fast break buckets.
“That’s something we’ve been working on in practice,” Saintignon said.
“We’ve not been doing that in the beginning of the season and we have
been working on it. I don’t think we’ve got it to where we want it yet
but it worked well tonight.”
“The 21 turnovers tonight are unacceptable,” Saintignon pointed out.
“We had that down to 15 the other night and we have been averaging 19
but the unforced turnover like the traveling is what we need to cut
down on. We can’t be playing a good team and do that stuff and expect
to win.”
On the boards, the Hawks were in control as senior Haley Cox had seven
and Livingston seven.
“We did a good job on the boards tonight,” Saintignon said. “We were
boxing out well and Haley and Mallory were getting the job done. We had
a good offensive showing and we got the win.”
Arcanum rolls into Hawk Country Thursday and Saintignon knows it’s a
big game in the Cross County Conference.
“This is a game we can’t look past,” said Saintignon. “We can’t just
come out here and expect to win and that’s what I told the girls
tonight. This Fairlawn team is three times the team they were a year
ago and I know they were going to be better. Arcanum is the same way.
We have to play and fight hard and that’s how we are going to win that
game if we do.”
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