February 26, 2025

Shenandoah chips away, ends NV girls' season

Wolverines bid farewell to four senior players

By Ryan Stonebraker
Nodaway Valley senior Maddie Weston drives to the hoop against the Shenandoah defense in a regional girls basketball game.

Nodaway Valley senior Maddie Weston drives to the hoop against the Shenandoah defense in a regional girls basketball game. (Dan Dickinson)

Nodaway Valley’s girls basketball squad opened the postseason last Tuesday, Feb. 18 with a tall task in front of them, playing at Class 2A No. 9 Shenandoah.

While players like Lenox’s Sadie Cox or Mount Ayr’s Izzy Gilbertson have been a lot to handle this year, Fillies senior forward Lynnae Green, who is a University of Nebraska-Kearney hoops signee, was too much for the scrappy Wolverines as a true back-to-the-basket-type player. She led Shenandoah in points with 22 and rebound with 27 as the Filles collected a 72-55 win.

“We were in it until the middle part of the fourth quarter. If we hit a couple of shots in the second half we are down five and it could have been maybe a different story,” said Nodaway Valley head coach Brian Eisbach.

Next year will feature a much different look for the Wolverines as Orient-Macksburg whole grade shares and collaborates with Nodaway Valley in all activities.

“We haven’t had a lot of kids move in or transfer in. This is new to us getting almost half of a new team when you factor in the Orient-Macksburg kids. We have some new kids that are coming in that have played a lot of basketball from middle school too,” Eisbach said. “It’s never easy to end a season and say goodbye to seniors, but we will, and we will get back to work soon.”

NV senior Liv Laughery rises up for a jump shot in a regional tournament girls basketball game against Shenandoah.

NV senior Liv Laughery rises up for a jump shot in a regional tournament girls basketball game against Shenandoah. (Dan Dickinson)

The Wolverines end the season 8-15 and end the season on a three-game losing streak. The Wolverines say goodbye to seniors Liv Laughery, Maddie Weston, Mylee Comstock and Taylor Day who have been a part of 66 wins in their four years in the program. Delaney Blomme was a manager.

It wasn’t any one quarter that did the Wolverines in as they were never outscored by more than five points in a single quarter, but when you add the totals up, it made a 17-point margin.

The Wolverines trailed 18-13 after the first quarter and 33-24 at halftime. Shenandoah took a 51-37 lead into hte fourth quarter, outscoring the Wolverines 21-18 in that frame to win the game.

Junior guard Izzy Eisbach scored 24 points, grabbed eight rebounds, made four assists and two steals in the loss. Weston added 13 points, four rebounds and four assists. Comstock had nine points on three 3-pointers and Liv Laughery had nine points and seven rebounds. Day contributed three rebounds and two assists to the cause.

In addition to Greene, there were three more Fillies who ended up in double-digit scoring. Kalyn Scamman scored 17, Alexis Schebaum 12 and Chloe Denton 11.

This was the third time since 2019 that these two teams have met. The Wolverines won the second meeting by six in January 2020 and the Mustangs won by eight the year before that.

Shenandoah went on to lose to Treynor, 63-58, in the next round, and the Cardinals play in a regional final Wednesday, Feb. 26 at Underwood against Exira-Elk Horn-Kimballton.