GIRLS BB: Earlham tops NV as girls fight through rugged stretch

If there was one takeaway from the Nodaway Valley Wolverines’ finish to last week in girls basketball, it was that they were battle-tested.

After a home win against Southwest Valley last Tuesday, Nodaway Valley edged Martensdale-St. Marys on the road Friday, 58-52. Nonconference foe Earlham then came to Greenfield on Saturday and handed the Wolverines their second loss of the season, snapping a 17-game winning streak with a 58-47 victory.

“We’re banged up, like a lot of teams. It’s that time of year where you have a lot of games in a short amount of time, and they’re hard-fought because you’re playing for your place in a regional pairing,” NV head coach Brian Eisbach said. “We didn’t shoot the ball particularly well against Earlham and got out-rebounded overall, but I don’t think it was for a lack of effort at all. It just wasn’t there. They’re a really good team, and we picked the wrong day to have a bad day against a really good team.”

Earlham junior Shilynn Terrell hit a 3-pointer on the final possession of the first quarter to tie the game at 13. The Cardinals then mounted a 13-3 run through the second quarter, allowing just one Nodaway Valley field goal in the period, to take a 26-16 lead into the locker room.

A 3-pointer by Emma Boswell cut the deficit to eight with 2:50 remaining in the fourth, and she followed with a putback at the 1:47 mark to make it a seven-point game. That was as close as the Wolverines would get down the stretch.

Earlham senior Avrie Fagan led all scorers with 28 points, shooting 11 of 22 from the field and 3 of 7 from beyond the arc. Seniors Darby Moore and Kenna Harskamp added 10 points apiece for the Cardinals, while Terrell pulled down 10 rebounds.

Izzy Eisbach led Nodaway Valley with 24 points on 9-of-29 shooting, including 2 of 10 from 3-point range. Boswell scored 12 points and Abby Nelson added 11. Nelson and Boswell posted double-doubles on the boards with 16 and 12 rebounds, respectively.

“Fagan went off — she had a really good game,” Eisbach said. “We had a very emotional, hard-fought conference win in a tough, hostile environment the night before. In the grand scheme of things, our goal is to win the conference. Obviously, losing to an unranked Earlham team — a team that was ranked earlier in the season — and one that’s in Class 2A, that could affect us when regional pairings come out. Now it’s going to be a little bit steeper of a mountain.”

Decisive scoring margins in the second and fourth quarters proved pivotal in Nodaway Valley’s ability to escape Martensdale-St. Marys with a crucial conference win.

The Wolverines led 13-12 after a slow start but closed the first half on a run to take a 28-21 advantage at halftime. With 1:04 left before the break, Boswell secured her 1,534th career rebound, setting the state rebounding record for the 5-on-5 era. She had 17 rebounds in the first half and finished with 25, playing a key role in Nodaway Valley’s early success.

The Blue Devils opened the second half with a 7-0 run to tie the game at 28 before a Boswell free throw and an Eisbach 3-pointer gave the Wolverines a four-point cushion. The teams traded leads late in the third quarter and were tied entering the fourth, where Nodaway Valley closed the game on an 8-2 run. Late free throws by Mattie Thompson were critical in that stretch.

“It was a rock fight, and we just made plays when we needed to,” Eisbach said. “Izzy didn’t have a great night overall compared to normal, and she attacked the rim and finished to put us up, and I think that gave us the edge. Mattie came in and sank the two free throws for Emma when she went out with her shoulder. The kids stayed up the whole time and didn’t get down on themselves. It was more, ‘Let’s get out of here with a win.’”

Eisbach scored 39 points, while Boswell and Sofie Rardin added 10 apiece in Nodaway Valley’s 79-53 win over Southwest Valley. Hailey Randall led the Timberwolves with 23 points, with Ada Lund scoring 16 and Mackenzie Fast 11. Randall and Fast both recorded double-doubles, grabbing 14 and 11 rebounds, respectively.

The Wolverines (17-2) were scheduled to host East Union (2-15) on Tuesday before traveling to Central Decatur (11-6) on Friday. Regional pairings were expected to be released Thursday.

“The good news is our season’s not over,” Eisbach said. “If we come out and play like that — where we don’t rebound as well as we should or don’t shoot as well as we should — we don’t want the kids to experience the feeling we had in our locker room Saturday and have that be the end of our season. We have seven seniors we care about tremendously, and they weren’t happy either. The message was, ‘Let’s refocus, take Sunday off and finish the regular season strong.’ Once we have our regional pairings, we’ll know what we need to be prepared for.”