Wolverines ‘find a way’ in girls basketball debut

A strong start and strong finish were especially helpful for Nodaway Valley to defeat visiting Adair-Casey/Guthrie Center 55-37 Monday, Nov. 21 on the opening night of the girls basketball season at home.

The Wolverines rebounded well in the first quarter and had two 3-pointers each from junior Lindsey Davis and freshman Izzy Eisbach in that frame to get an early lead.

No non-scoring statistic were available by press time, however Davis won the “Little Bling” award for doing the little things well in the game.

“I think we were really excited to have a game after two weeks of practice,” Davis said. “We were all pumped up and came out showing it in the first quarter, and that was good.”

The Wolverines went on a 7-0 scoring run through the first half of the second quarter that pushed their lead to as many as a dozen and they led 27-17 at halftime.

ACGC’s Reagan Carney canned a shot early in the fourth quarter to cut the game to six points, however Eisbach hit a trey with 6:18 remaining that jump started the pull-away run.

“I struggled with confidence early on, but coach came up and told me I need to trust my reps,” Eisbach said. “I felt that helped and gave me the confidence.”

Davis led all scorers with 27 points, and Eisbach chipped in 15. Annika Nelson scored five while Bella Hogan and Jorja Holliday were each instrumental in rebounding, scoring four each for NV (1-0), who plays Saturday at Class 3A preseason No. 13 Solon.

The Chargers (0-1), who is coached by Nodaway Valley alum Brad Baudler, were led by senior Sophie Dorsey’s 10 points. ACGC plays Tuesday, Nov. 29 at Atlantic.

“That was the first live, play for keeps action this starting five has had together. We have a lot of things to work on and a lot of things to clean up. Down the stretch we had a couple of starters playing with four fouls and still kept up our intensity,” NV head coach Brian Eisbach said. “We found a way. That’s the best way to say it, that we found a way.”