Van-Far Teams Split With Mark Twain In Courtwarming Night Battles
The Van-Far Indians and Lady Indians faced off with Mark Twain in Courtwarming games on Friday, Feb. 2.
The girls were edged out by the Lady Tigers, 62-46, and the boys were victorious, 73-59.
The lead went back and forth during the opening period as Jayle Jennings dropped in two buckets, Jordan Garner hit a field goal and Reaghan Case sank a pair of three-pointers. Garner and Katie Elzea also went 2-2 each at the free throw line.
Mark Twin ended the quarter with the 21-16 lead, though, on the back of four treys from McKenzie Latrom and three buckets from Mackenzie Ogle.
Case scored another three and Garner hit another basket in the second frame, but Mark Twain epanded their lead with seven more points from Lathrom and four from Ogle. Mark Twain led at halftime, 34-21.
The Lady Indians weren’t going quietly as they battled in the second half. Case hit a couple more, along with Jennings, and the girls were 4-6 from the line but still came up two points short of Mark Twain in the third, 16-14.
In the final quarter Lathrom tacked on another seven points for her game-high 31 as Mark Twain outscored Van-Far 12-11.
“We didn’t get the ball inside as much as we should have and defensively we didn’t move and rotate like we have been,” noted Coach Kelly Borchert.
Case and Garner each had 14 points to lead the Lady Indians and Case earned the Community State Bank TribCast Player of the Game for her efforts. Jennings scored eight, Elzea contributed four, Panna Connaway had three, Alivia Graddy scored two and Gina Clausen had one.
The lead went back and forth in the boys game with the Indians shutting the door down the stretch.
Trey Miller dropped in a couple of baskets in addition to field goals from Caden Wilburn and Brayden Christian, but Van-Far trailed Mark Twain after the first quarter, 18-9.
The Indians came roaring back in the second. Josh Hodde hit a pair of three-pointers, along with Lathyn McMorris and Wilburn and got another five points from Miller. Van-Far outscored Mark Twain 22-9 for a 31-27 lead at halftime.
Mark Twain battled back in the third, outscoring Van-Far 18-14 as the Indians were 6-8 from the charity stripe and got baskets from McMorris, Wilburn, Treyson Culwell and Hodde. The Indians shut the door in the final frame with a pair of threes from McMorris, four baskets from Hodde, seven points from Christian and three more from Miller who was named the Community State Bank TribCast Player of the Game.
Van-Far had five players in double-digits in a balanced scoring effort. Hodde led the way with 19, Miller notched 14, Wilburn scored 13, McMorris contributed 12, Christian had 11 and Verlyn Johnson and Culwell each had three.
We had a huge crowd and after a slow start the boys didn’t disappoint,” noted Coach Pat Connaway. “It was a hard fought victory and we improved to 18-3 overall and 6-1 in the EMO. Now we need to get ready for two tough road games this week.”
The Indians defeated MMA on Monday and will take on Wellsville tonight (Tuesday, Feb. 6).
