A tight locker room is leading to the NV girls’ success on the court

With two lopsided wins in the last week, over Southwest Valley and Wayne, Nodaway Valley’s girls basketball team was able to get a plethora of players onto the court and give them extensive experience, no matter their age or level of experience.

The Wolverines topped the Timberwolves last Tuesday, Dec. 6, 70-25. On Friday, they beat Wayne, 62-34.

“We had very active defense, our press looked really good, and we did a really good job of rebounding the basketball,” head coach Brian Eisbach said of the win over Wayne. “We hit some shots. It’s a two-hour trip, you get out and it’s dark, but I think our kids came out with good fire and played how they’re capable of playing. We did a really good job of deflecting the ball, going to get it and finishing in transition.”

The Falcons saw a heavy dose of Wolverine junior Lindsey Davis in that game. She scored a career-high 34 points, had nine steals and four blocked shots. She scored 16 in the first half, hitting two of her three 3-pointers before the break.

Junior forward Jorja Holliday contributed nine points, but had a team-high 14 rebounds. Junior forward Bella Hogan added 10 rebounds and junior forward Annika Nelson blocked a career-high seven shots.

Holliday posted 10 rebounds against Southwest Valley, as did Nelson. Davis scored 24 points.

With 73 rebounds on the year, Holliday had the third-most rebounds in Class 2A going into this week and received the award for doing the little things well against Wayne.

“During the summer, I put a lot of work in during the offseason,” Holliday said. “I worked on rebounds, going against harder players in practice and always trying to help my teammates get better. That’s just what helps me.”

The Wolverines got a large group of sophomore bench players a lot more time than usual on the court against Southwest Valley. Sophomore guard Maddie Weston drilled two key 3-pointers in the win and had a nifty assist to sophomore center Megan McCall in the victory that put her as the winner of the little things award.

“This morning I put up some shots with my dad because I really wanted to prove myself tonight and show that I’m not just a sophomore, and that I can do better than I’ve been doing,” said Weston, whose dad is a former assistant coach for the Wolverines. “I think [getting so much playing time for our reserves] is going to be good for our team and we will keep improving greatly. I think we’ll be good again next year because we’re young.”

Nodaway Valley (4-1, 2-1 in the Pride of Iowa Conference) was scheduled to play at Bedford (2-3, 1-1 in the POI) Tuesday, host a crucial game for conference standings Thursday against Martensdale-St. Marys (6-1, 3-0 in the POI) and travel to Atlantic (4-2) Saturday.

“We have a really tight locker room. The kids are having fun. It’s really cool to see how the locker room erupts into laughter and cheering when we announce who won the Little Bling award, and they’re happy for whoever won it,” Eisbach said. “They’re playing for each other, and when a team plays for each other on the floor and on the bench, a lot can be accomplished.”