Vandal seventh-grade girls beat Greenville again
The Vandalia Junior High seventh-grade girls basketball team defeated Greenville for the third time this season last Thursday, winning 36-26.
The Vandals (16-1) beat the Blue Jays, 24-7, on Oct. 19 and, 34-29, on Sept. 25 to win the Vandalia Tournament.
The Greenville coaching staff, however, made some adjustments in hopes it wouldn’t lose to the Vandals again.
“It’s very hard to beat a team three times in a season,” said Vandalia coach Dana Kirk. “I have to commend the Greenville coaches. They definitely came out and gave us a run tonight.”
The Blue Jays took an early 4-0 lead and maintained a 7-4 advantage after allowing only Makayla Tinker and Karlie Bright to score for Vandalia in the first quarter.
Kirk made some successful adjustments of her own, though, and Bright scored the first four points of the second quarter to move the Vandals ahead, 8-7.
The lead would change five straight times from there until Greenville made two straight shots to move ahead, 15-12.
But Madelyn Hosick would score her only points of the first half and Leah Francis her only points of the game to force a tie at 16 late in the second quarter. Greenville would add two more points to take a small lead to halftime.
he Blue Jays quickly scored twice to open the second half, extending their lead to 22-18. But from there, the Vandals would seize control.
“Once we figured out to move the ball quickly, reverse it and not be afraid to take some shots, we started to pull away,” Kirk said. “I had confidence in them the whole time, but they needed some confidence in themselves.”
That confidence came in the form of Bright and Hosick combining to outscore Greenville 11-0 the rest of the third quarter, giving Vandalia a 29-22 lead.
The scoring barrage continued, as the Vandals would outscore Greenville 7-4 in the fourth quarter to finish the game on a 18-4 run and secure a 10-point win. And that all came on a night when the Vandals were easily outrebounded and had several unlucky bounces on the rim.
“We did take a lot of good- looking shots tonight that didn’t fall,” Kirk said. “We’re going to change some things (shooting-wise) this week.”
Bright led the Vandals with 17 points. She was followed by Hosick with nine and Tinker with eight. Having go-to players is a nice luxury for Kirk, but she would prefer to have a more balanced offensive output.
“We have to start getting some contribution from other players, though,” Kirk said. “We’re trying some new things offensively, and it’s working out.”
Thursday, Nov. 4
vs. Greenville
Vandalia 36
Greenville 26
Scoring – Bright, 17; Hosick, 9; Tinker, 8; Francis, 2.
Tuesday, Nov. 2
at Litchfield
Vandalia 40
Litchfield 4
Scoring – Bright, 16; Tinker, 10; Jalea Paslay, 6; Hosick, 4; Haley Bigelow, 2; Emily Hedgpeth, 2.
Season scoring leaders
Bright, 178 points (11.13 ppg)
Tinker, 167 points (10.43 ppg)
Hosick, 127 points (7.94 ppg)
Francis, 32 points (2 ppg)
Paslay, 30 points (1.88 ppg)
Bigelow, 9 points (0.53 ppg)
Hedgpeth, 4 points (0.24 ppg)
