In a battle between size and speed, it was the speed and athleticism that ultimately won out as the Class 2 No. 8 ranked Hartville Lady Eagles (16-6) defeated the Norwood Lady Pirates (15-4), 54-39, on Monday evening.
After defeating the Lady Pirates in the Norwood Tournament back in December, the Lady Eagles used much of the same game plan and got the same result the second time as well.
“We play a couple of different styles,” Hartville head coach Cecil Meyer said. “Sometimes we will press and get up and down the floor, while other times we will grind it out like we did tonight and the first time we played them. It really just depends on the type of team we play.”
Scoring the first two points of the game and jumping out to an early 10-2 lead late in the first quarter, the Lady Eagles led from beginning to end and never let Norwood get closer than four points after a layup by Norwood’s Cherokee McGraw to begin the second quarter.
“At first we tried playing behind them and doubling a little bit and that worked early, but they started pushing us back under so then we went back to fronting them and getting backside help,” said Meyer. “We played off the shooters just a little bit to get in the passing lanes and that seemed to help as well and allowed us to extend the lead.”
The Lady Eagles were led by freshman standout Sadie Chisum with 15 points, while Cheyanne Mullenix added 13 points for Hartville. Emily Chadwell led Norwood with 12 points.
After Norwood cut the lead to single digits after a three pointer from Chadwell early in the second half, Mullenix scored six of Hartville’s next eight points that was highlighted with a fast break score on a no-look pass from Chisum.
While Chisum and Mullenix led the way offensively for the Lady Eagles, it was a team effort that propelled the Lady Eagles to the win.
“I thought Sadie did an excellent job taking care of the ball and penetrating and finding open people,” Meyer said. “I also thought Chey[anne] did a great job. She hit some big shots and free throws down the stretch. Also, Grace [Still], Lexi [Tasker] and some of the others that were way undersized inside did a great job of rebounding the ball.”
In the end, it was Hartville’s free throw shooting that was the biggest difference in the game as they hit 22 to Norwood’s eight free throws.
“We were a little more aggressive to the basket, so we got a few more foul calls,” said Meyer. “We would like to make a few more, but we made some late that really sealed the game.”
Ultimately, however, Meyer was most impressed with his team’s execution on both ends of the court.
“We have kind of been struggled with making some shots and really executing offensively,” Meyer said. “We’ve also had a few times where we’ve had a hard time executing our defensive game plan going in, but tonight I thought we executed on both ends of the floor.”
Next up, Hartville hosts another Summit Conference foe when they battle the Fordland Eagles on Feb. 4, while Norwood returns home to play Dora on Feb. 2.
Norwood 7 10 9 13—54
Hartville 13 13 13 15—39
Norwood: Emily Chadwell 12, Jenna Ogletree 10, Cherokee McGraw 7, Emma McIntosh 5, Chloe Crain 3, Sara McIntosh 2
Hartville: Sadie Chisum 15, Cheyanne Mullenix 13, Emily Chisum 9, Grace Still 7, Ashlynne Dickinson 6, Mallory Hardcastle 3
