(Greenfield) First place in the Pride of Iowa Conference girls basketball standings is on the line Thursday when Nodaway Valley hosts Martensdale-St. Marys. The game will air on 96.5 FM.
8th ranked Martensdale-St. Marys, Nodaway Valley, Mount, Ayr, and Central Decatur are all 3-0 in the POI. Wolverine coach Brian Eisbach cuts right to the chase when asked what is at stake…”The conference. I mean, in a nut-shell the last couple years the winner of that game has gone on to win the conference. That was our only loss last year and they ran the table, so that pretty much summarizes it.”
The only loss for either team was to Solon early in the year. Both games were by similar final scores. “It is an intriguing matchup for us. They are very guard heavy. Guards and forwards across their lineup. They are very balanced. Their top three scorers get 41-42 of their 60 points per game. They have kids can shoot it, they have kids that can drive it, they can all play defense, they are all very active and very good at making your mistakes count. We are really going to have focus us and play a good game.”
Both teams are coming in with some momentum. The Blue Devils have won seven in a row. Nodaway Valley pushed their win streak to four games with Tuesday’s 97-18 triumph over Bedford. Junior Lindsey Davis broke a single game school record with 43 points. “What Lindsey does a really good job of among many things is she involves her teammates. This is my 5th year and we’ve talked about it every year. All five kids on the floor have to be a threat. That is made easier when you have facilitators that are sharing the ball at all times. Even against Bedford on Tuesday she had 43 points and she passed up several shots. The kids are all playing hard together. They are playing for each other.”
Davis is averaging 28.7 points per game and shooting 49% from the field. Izzy Eisbach and Annika Nelson are each averaging over 9 points per game.
It’s a girl/boy doubleheader from Greenfield. Pregame coverage starts at 5:45.
Nodaway Valley coach Brian Eisbach:
