Springs Valley Community High School

Over the course of the season, the Springs Valley girls’ basketball team has faced the same situation on several occasions. The Blackhawks would take the floor, tip the ball, and immediately go cold on the offensive end. Road trips to Northeast Dubois, White River Valley, and Perry Central all saw some version of that, with the 24-2 halftime deficit at Dubois being the most severe, and all three ended as Springs Valley losses. Midway through last week there was only one example of the Blackhawks overcoming a slow start. On Nov. 15 they went to the half against North Daviess tied 19-19 before blowing by the Cougars after the break to win 44-36. Now in less than a week they’ve done it twice. On Saturday the ‘Hawks slogged their way to a measly 20-17 halftime lead at Loogootee — a 2-8 team with its only wins over Shoals and Washington Catholic — before kicking things into gear just enough to beat the Lions 38-36. On Tuesday they headed to the locker room down 20-17 to West Washington, better than the 13-6 deficit they faced after one quarter but still not ideal. They came out in the second half and righted the ship to take a 44-39 win on their home floor. “I think that’s a mark of some real progress with these guys because there have been other games where we got ourselves dug in a hole kind of like we did tonight and then that’s where we kind of stayed. We’d play even, but we couldn’t chip into the lead,” Springs Valley coach Marty Niehaus said. “We started hitting buckets, started clicking together a little bit better, and I thought we played pretty well down the stretch.” The most promising part of the win for Springs Valley was the balance that it had on the offensive end. Throughout the season the Blackhawks have relied on Maddie Carnes to score and she’s done that, recording more than a quarter of the team’s points by herself, but the Blackhawks want to be more versatile on that end of the floor and they were against West Washington. Macy Hall stepped up to lead the team with 12 points, Maci Eckerty put up 10, bench forwards Tori McCormick and Bella Nottger scored six apiece, Bella Shipman scored four and Ashlyn Bonta found a bucket as well. All of those contributions allowed Carnes to have an off night, scoring just four points, without Springs Valley paying the price for it. “That’s a big thing. We know there are going to be nights where just Maddie isn’t going to work, so we’re looking for other options,” Niehaus said. “I thought Macy Hall stepped up and did some good things, Maci Eckerty was kind of her usual self, Ashlyn Bonta got a bucket, Tori hit some buckets, Nottger hit a couple of buckets, so that was good to see. That balance is definitely going to make us better.” The Blackhawks hope that the performance is an indication of things to come from Hall. Though her effort is always top-notch, her scoring has been here and there to this point in her senior year. Springs Valley’s last two games were a prime example, as she was held scoreless by the Lions on just one shot and two free-throw attempts only to turn around and drop 12 days later. “She always works hard. I talked to her a little bit about her maybe trying too hard sometimes because it looks like she’s pressing on her shot, but she played a little more within herself tonight,” Niehaus said. “She went hard, but was able to kind of settle it down, get a decent touch on the ball, and finish. “That’s her game and it was good to see it come out tonight when needed.” Springs Valley (8-6, 3-1 PLAC) is now set to get a much-deserved break. The Blackhawks won’t play again until Dec. 29 when they host Hancock County. They intend to use the break to heal up a bit, but also have their eye on the month of January. Once they return to action they’ll play a pair of pretty big games in short order as they’ll host both Crawford County and Paoli. Thanks to their win over West Washington, they can still claim a piece of the Patoka Lake Athletic Conference championship if they take down the Wolfpack and the Rams. “We had a goal to do well in the conference and the loss to Perry was a little disappointing, but now we really control our own fate,” Niehaus said. “We’ve got just the two games to play and they’re two toughies, but historically we’ve played them well more times than not and they’re coming here so that’s a good thing.” WEST WASHINGTON SENATORS 39 3P;AFG;FT;R;PF;Pts Thompson, g;1-6;8-15;0-0;2;2;17 Griffitts, g;0-0;1-3;0-0;1;1;2 Deaton, f;1-4;4-15;3-7;12;3;12 Hall, f;0-0;0-1;0-2;7;2;0 Woods, c;0-0;1-4;0-0;1;2;2 E. Schmidt;0-1;2-4;0-0;4;2;4 Ad. Brown;0-0;1-2;0-0;0;0;2 Young;0-0;0-3;0-0;0;1;0 Ab. Brown;0-0;0-0;0-0;0;0;0 A. Schmidt;0-0;0-0;0-0;0;0;0 Totals;2-11;17-47;3-9;28;13;39 Shooting;.182;.362;.333 SPRINGS VALLEY BLACKHAWKS 00 3P;AFG;FT;R;PF;Pts Buchanan, g;0-1;0-5;0-0;3;0;0 Eckerty, g;1-1;4-7;1-3;2;2;10 Shipman, f;0-0;2-3;0-2;0;1;4 Hall, f;0-0;5-9;2-4;2;1;12 Carnes, c;0-0;1-6;2-2;8;1;4 Nottger;0-0;3-6;0-0;6;1;6 McCormick;0-0;3-4;0-0;1;1;6 Bonta;0-0;1-1;0-0;0;1;2 Totals;1-2;19-41;5-11;22;8;44 Shooting;.500;.463;.455 West Washington (5-4);13;7;7;12—39 Springs Valley (8-6);6;11;11;16—44 TO: Springs Valley 13, West Washington 11.