GIRLS HOOPS: NV finishes last week 3-0

Precision passing was one of the many things the Nodaway Valley girls did well in a basketball win Saturday, Dec. 9 over non-conference opponent Atlantic.

The 68-31 win over the Trojans for the Class 2A No. 5 Wolverines kept their unblemished season in place going into an important second-to-last week of the 2023 part of the schedule.

“Atlantic maybe isn’t as deep as they were a year ago, but they’re still Atlantic: they’re still athletic, and Paytn Harter is one of the best athletes we’ll probably see. She can do it all. I thought Jorja [Holliday] and Bella [Hogan] did a great job of taking her cuts away,” NV head coach Brian Eisbach said. The Wolverines held Harter to 14 points — under her 17 points per game average.

A scoring run later in the first quarter put the Wolverines up 16-8 after the first break, and they led 40-14 at halftime.

It was in that second quarter that Nodaway Valley passed especially well, sharing the ball, finding shots for their teammates, and they knocked down those shots. The Wolverines’ press also became more effective, which flowed them into a more offensive game.

“[Atlantic coach Dan Vargason] has always played zone [defense] because they’ve had so much length and athleticism, but they’ve now gone to man, and I think they’re still learning that. They did a good job, at times, but we spaced the floor, made good cuts and good passes,” Eisbach said. “We had passes that were on the money and we shared the ball. If you can get five or six kids to score, everybody’s on the floor and feels involved, it builds from there.”

Up 56-27 at the close of the third quarter, the Wolverines got 22 points from Lindsey Davis. Izzy Eisbach, in scoring 21 points, hit five 3-pointers in the outing.

In other games last week, NV beat Southwest Valley Friday, Dec. 8 on the road 62-33, behind 24 points from Eisbach and 16 from Davis. Eisbach led with nine rebounds, nine assists and six steals, while Holliday was next in line with eight rebounds.

At home against Bedford Tuesday, Dec. 5, the Wolverines downed Bedford 77-35. Davis poured in 36 points in that game and Eisbach 22. Holliday was next with nine. Holliday had seven rebounds, two blocks and a steal. Eisbach tallied 12 steals — one away from a single-game record set by Davis last season.

Eisbach’s nine steals against Bedford and Southwest Valley tied her own school record set last year that she shares three ways with Davis and Christine Gross.

In all three games last week, Coach Eisbach liked how bench players took advantage of the chances they got on the floor.

The Wolverines entered this week, after getting the rest of the weekend off from practice, having a big slate of games on the docket for this week. They were set to host Lenox Tuesday before traveling to Class 1A No. 3 Martensdale-St. Marys Thursday. This is the only meeting there is this season between the Wolverines and Blue Devils.

“Lenox has some good players and good talent, and nothing against the other teams in our conference, but typically the winner of that game wins the conference, so we’ve gotta have it. We know them, they know us,” Eisbach said. “I feel like right now everybody’s sick, so I told the girls to have the rest of the weekend off, get rest and fluids, and we’ll come back on Monday and go hard.”