(Greenfield) The state tournament is within reach for the Nodaway Valley girls basketball team.
At 22-0 and ranked #4 in Class 2A, the Wolverines have checked off a lot of goals on their list this season, but the big one comes Wednesday. They’ll play 17-6 AHSTW, a familiar opponent, for a trip to state. Here’s head coach Brian Eisbach, “We are excited about the opportunity and are not taking it lightly. It’s a rematch with a team that ended our season last year. I think our kids are pretty fired up and focused and looking forward to the rematch.”
These teams played twice last year with Nodaway Valley winning the regular season meeting 58-56, but AHSTW winning in the regional semifinals 63-58. Coach Brian Eisbach says his team will have to have a disciplined defensive approach against AHSTW’s “Big 3” of Kailey Jones, Claire Denning, and Claire Harris. The trio combines to have average 45.6 points which is over 80% of the Lady Vike’s offensive output. “We are just going to take it one possession at a time. We have several games on film and are well aware of what they are capable of.”
Nodaway Valley squeaked one out in overtime against South Central Calhoun on Friday. “We started to let South Central Calhoun dictate the flow and the tempo of that game. It showed and they took the lead in the 4th quarter. We had to scrap our way back and had some kids hit some really big shots. Fortunately we put ourselves in position. We found a way at the end.”
AHSTW is coming off of a 59-29 win over Mount Ayr their last time out. Wednesday’s regional final will be played in Atlantic starting at 7:00 p.m. We’ll have the game on 96.5 FM KSOM.
