{"id":83505,"date":"2017-01-18T06:58:21","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T11:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=83505"},"modified":"2017-01-18T06:58:50","modified_gmt":"2017-01-18T11:58:50","slug":"vw-county-girls-roundball-round-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2017\/01\/18\/vw-county-girls-roundball-round-up\/","title":{"rendered":"VW County girls’ roundball round-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports<\/em><\/p>\n

The 2016-2017 high school basketball season is in full swing, and, on the ladies\u2019 side, three Van Wert County teams have enjoyed differing degrees of success.<\/p>\n

On paper, Van Wert\u2019s record may not be impressive (4-10, 1-3 Western Buckeye League), but head coach Rob Adams believes the Lady Cougars are making real progress after going 0-22 last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have won four games, which is a small step, but a very important step,\u201d Adams said. \u201cWe are still very young, but the girls are starting to learn how hard winning is.\u201d<\/p>\n

After serving as an assistant last season, Adams was named head coach in October and immediately began working to turn things around.<\/p>\n

\"Basketball\"\u201cThe biggest challenge has been establishing our team identity with such a short amount of time to work with,\u201d Adams said. \u201cWe established our defense first, but are now starting to develop team chemistry on offense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adams added that improving offensive transition and overall offensive ability will be important during the remaining games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like to play fast and aggressive, and that comes with turnovers,\u201d Adams said. \u201cIf we can learn to control our turnovers and become better passers, our offensive production will improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to scoring, the Lady Cougars have shared the load, which makes it harder for opponents to key on one player.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlly Jackson and Reagan Priest have been fairly consistent scorers, with Cassidy Meyers, Abby Jackson, and Alexis Rupert all chipping in,\u201d Adams said. \u201cOur leading rebounders have been Cassidy Meyers and Ally Jackson.\u201d<\/p>\n

While this year\u2019s team continues to improve, Adams is excited about the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur JV squad has come very capable newcomers that will add excitement to our team in the coming years, so development of those players is critical to next year\u2019s production,\u201d Adams said. \u201cWe have a lot of moving parts and once we learn how to put it all together, I believe this team will contend in the WBL.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lady Cougars defeated Paulding 60-29 last night, and will return to action tomorrow night at Kenton.<\/p>\n

Just past the midway point of their regular season schedule, the Crestview Lady Knights are in the midst of a busy stretch. The Lady Knights played powerful Coldwater last night (a 58-41 loss) and will host Lima Central Catholic tomorrow, Delphos St. John\u2019s Saturday, then play at Van Wert on Monday.<\/p>\n

Crestview is 6-6 (1-3 NWC) and, at one point, enjoyed a five-game winning streak.<\/p>\n

Win or lose, head coach Mark Gregory is pleased with his team.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur team plays so hard all of the time,\u201d Gregory said. \u201cI am so proud to watch them no matter if we are up or down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have played a lot of really good teams and also played on the road 8 of our first 12 games,\u201d Gregory added.<\/p>\n

The Lady Knights have one of the younger teams around the area, with just one senior (Ashley Dealey), four juniors, three sophomores, and three freshmen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see growth every time we step on the floor,\u201d Gregory said.<\/p>\n

Paige Motycka, 5-8 junior guard\/forward, is the team leader in scoring and rebounding, averaging 19.5 points and nine rebounds per game, while a pair of 5-5 guards, freshman Lexi Gregory and junior Lyvia Black, each average 11 points per game.<\/p>\n

Gregory said that, while there have been many positives so far, there\u2019s work to be done during the remaining regular season games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to continue to improve on our rebounding, take care of the basketball in late game situations and communication,\u201d Gregory said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been pleased with our energy and enthusiasm, and I\u2019m excited to see what the second half of the season has in store for the Lady Knights,\u201d<\/p>\n

After last season\u2019s 5-18 finish, the Lincolnview Lady Lancers are off to a solid start, with a record of 9-4 (3-1 NWC), and head coach Dan Williamson is pleased with his team\u2019s play.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest positives so far this season have been our ability to rebound on both ends of the floor and the improvement of our defense,\u201d Williamson said. \u201cWe have only been outrebounded in two of our games this year, and are averaging about eight offensive rebounds a game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur defense has been a big reason we have nine wins up to this point, as we are giving up 37 points a game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defensively, the Lady Lancers are holding opponents to 34 percent shooting, including just 22 percent from three-point range.<\/p>\n

On the offensive side, junior post player Kayla Schimmoeller has been Lincolnview\u2019s leading scorer, with an average of 11.4 points per game. Junior guard Alena Looser is averaging 9.1 points per game, and sophomore guard Lakin Brant is averaging 6.8 points per game.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to see our offense more consistent during the second half of the season,\u201d Williamson said. \u201cWe have really relied heavily on our defense to win games, so, hopefully, we can continue to gain confidence in the offensive end to make it a little easier on our defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order for us for us to become the team we want to be, we need to be able to finish games and stay focused on doing the little things each possession,\u201d Williamson added.<\/p>\n

The Lady Lancers topped Antwerp 38-31 last night, and will host state-ranked Columbus Grove tomorrow night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports The 2016-2017 high school basketball season is in full swing, and, on the ladies\u2019 side, three Van Wert County teams have enjoyed differing degrees of success. On paper, Van Wert\u2019s record may not be impressive (4-10, 1-3 Western Buckeye League), but head coach Rob Adams believes the Lady Cougars are making real […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 08:31:38","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83505\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}