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Mississinawa Valley senior Dalton Rinderle gets two of his team high 23
points against Newton Friday. The Hawks
were successful in theur CCC
opener, thrashing the Indians, 76-59. CNO photo by Dylan Knoop
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MV takes down
Newton in season opener
Barga proves successful in debut
By George Starks
UNION CITY- When Tim Barga took the reins at Mississinawa Valley as the
head boys basketball coach, there were several things he did not know.
The two biggest were the fact that he did not know his kids and he
didn’t know much about the teams in the Cross County Conference.
Barga may still not know much about the teams in the conference but he
knows his kids a little bit better than he did two months ago.
Holding a slim 27-26 lead at the break, Barga’s boys came out of the
locker room, ready to play ball.
The Hawks held Newton to 33 second half points and tallied 49 of their
own, gaining a 76-59 conference victory.
Led by senior Dalton Rinderle with 23, Mississinawa Valley landed five
in double figures with senior Cayden Cox netting 15 as juniors Dalton
Geesy, Devan Rinderle and Colyn Nelson scoring 10 each.
“We talked about this in the locker room after the game and I told the
kids it’s hard to scout a team with five kids and nearly six in double
figures,” said Barga. “if you’re looking to take a kid out of the game,
who do you pick. I know Dalton had 23 but we’ve got two or three other
kids that can do that also.”
Any coach will admit that no one player is responsible for winning a
game and the ability to protect the ball is essential to the success of
any team.
With 16 turnover in the first half, the Hawks had only six miscues in
the second half for a total of 22 total turnovers.
“It means a lot to me that these kids were out there and they shared
the ball,” said Barga. “We had a big talk at halftime about the
turnovers,” said Barga. “Going against their press, we played their
game in the second quarter and that was the topic at halftime as well.
The boys came out and they responded to that. They didn’t play their
game the rest of the time.”
Mississinawa Valley jumped out to a big 11-0 lead to start the game and
with less than three minutes left in the opening frame, the Hawks
enjoyed a 16-6 advantage.
That’s when the wheels fell off as the Tribe went on an 8-2 run to
close out the frame, trailing 18-14 with one quarter in the books.
Newton remained relentless in the second half, outscoring the Hawks,
12-9, to trail by a point at the break.
With history as it is, the third quarter for MV has typically been a
disaster but not on this night.
Mississinawa Valley did exactly what Barga wanted.
Play good defense, protect the ball and run the offense.
The Hawks did all three.
Leading 48-38 with eight minutes left to play, MV started to fly high.
The Hawks opened up a 54-40 lead with 6:53 remaining in the game on a
deuce in the paint by Nelson off a steal on the other end of the floor.
Newton was able to stop the bleeding when junior Brady McBride nailed a
three at the 6:34 mark, closing the gap to a 54-43 deficit.
With stellar ball control and a solid defense, the Hawks built a
commanding 65-49 lead with 3:19 remaining.
With the opening game in the books and the Hawks holding a 1-0 CCC
record, the Indians exposed several weaknesses in the MV armor.
One of those were being susceptible to the three ball, as the Tribe
drilled 10 long balls in the game.
“We took a time out with about five minutes left in the game,” Barga
said. “They wanted to get back in the game and threes were what they
wanted to shoot and you could see that’s what they wanted to shoot. We
had to make them put the ball on the floor. We don’t care if they take
it to the hoop or not just make them put it on the floor. I wasn’t real
happy until there was about three minutes to go. We really didn’t have
them under control until then.”
Along with 23 from Rinderle, the senior guard hauled in 11 rebounds
while freshman Ethan Bowam fell two points short of double figures with
eight points and sox boards.
Mississinawa Valley, 1-0 in the CCC, will host Ansonia next Friday. The
Hawks hosted cross town rivals, Union City Saturday in the Battle of
the Hub City. As of the time of this writing, no score was known yet.
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