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TVS Junior High Girls Double Trouble
J. C. Tilton
This season the Junior High Girls program put not one but two teams into the championship game of the post season CCC league tournament. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that South has accomplished this. The 7th grade team ended their regular season with just 2 losses, and the 8th grade team was undefeated. The respective coaches for the two teams are Bob Combs and Connie Wells. These two teams caused a lot of trouble for other CCC teams during the regular season, and just getting to the championship set a precedent. Now would these two teams raise the bar even more and win twin championships?
First up to bat was the TVS 7th grade team which played against Arcanum. It quickly became apparent that the Trojans wanted an uptempo game. They pressed South and tried to move the ball quickly down the court on offense. The press was effective in that it generated a few turnovers and got South into a 'hurry up' mode on offense. At halftime Arcanum lead 11-7. The third quarter was lackluster in the early going. South was able to tie at 11 points late in the quarter. But the Trojan's woke up from their 3rd quarter slumber and quickly scored 8 points and went into the final quarter up 19-13. Again the South defense held the Trojans early in the quarter and chipped away at the lead. With about 3 minutes left in the game South was on the Trojans heels - down by only 3 points. But the Trojans had one more late quarter rally left in them and held South at 16 while scoring 4 more points and winning by a final score of 23 to 16. Scoring for the TVS 7th grade team: Groff 4, Wysong 4, Vogue 7, Beneke 1.
The 8th grade team was the last hope to bring home a championship trophy. They played against an always strong Franklin Monroe team. South utilized a 3/4 court press against the Jets. The first half was very close with neither team able to gain much of an advantage. At the half the score was tied 18 all. In the last half of the 3rd quarter South got a little rally going and the crowd came alive. South had a six point advantage at one point. Then the coach pulled the starters to rest them for the final quarter. The Jets took advantage of the line up change and managed a rally of their own. They closed the gap to 2 points by quarters end. In the 4th quarter the South stragedy became clear, get the ball inside to post player Katie McCoy in the half court offense and keep unrelenting defensive pressure on the Jets with the 3/4 court trap. The front line of this trap was French and Spitler, who kept their feet moving all night. South kept stretching their lead, Debbie Brubaker and Maggie McCollum both hit some clutch shots late in the 4th. Franklin Monroe who had played it close all the way, just could not generate any momentum and South's 8th grade hung on to win the CCC Championship 42-32. Scoring for South: Spitler 2, French 4, Brubaker 10, McCollum 10, McCoy 14 (10 in 2nd half), Ervin 2.
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