AM
General delivery
Montcalm (47) Vs. Tug Valley (29)
Feb 22, 2016
By TOM BONE
Bluefield Daily Telegraph
MONTCALM — It had been awhile — since Feb. 5, to be exact — since the Montcalm girls basketball team had come off the court with a victory.

With three weather cancellations and one loss behind them in the last couple of weeks of the regular season, the Lady Generals picked up an important win on Monday night, dominating Tug Valley in a 47-29 decision in a Class A, Region 3, Section 2 first-round game at the MHS gym.

Montcalm head coach Cindy Havens said, “Losing games, and (not) getting that game play — it’s different from practice. We didn’t play that well last Thursday (in a 49-33 loss to Valley Fayette), but I thought we stepped up a little bit tonight and played with more intensity.”

Heather Nicewander scored 20 points and Stormy Carver contributed eight rebounds and five blocks for Montcalm (14-6) against the Lady Panthers (4-14), who committed 23 turnovers and went 8 for 36 from the field.

Savanna Bailey added six points, four steals and two assists.

Tug Valley point guard Emily Colegrove scored 13 points and the team’s sole senior, Kyria Messer, grabbed 13 rebounds.

Foul trouble and Montcalm’s usual rotation of players added up to plenty of minutes for girls off the MHS bench. Six players ended up with four or more points.

Havens said, “The ones that had to come in, when the others got in foul trouble, were basically players who have gotten a lot of experience, because I did play about eight players consistently in most of our games.

“That panned out for us tonight, with several being in foul trouble, because that’s not something that usually happens to us.”

Montcalm jumped out to an 11-1 lead after the first quarter, then missed their first seven shots of the second period. The home team led 19-9 at the break, after Tug Valley went 3 for 15 in field-goal tries and lost the ball 12 times in the first half.

The Lady Generals hit their first three shots of the second half and the Lady Panthers didn’t convert a field goal for seven minutes.

Montcalm calmly passed the ball around waiting for a chance to drive for a high-percentage shot during most of the game.

Havens said, “I’ve been trying to get them to understand that, when you have the lead, you don’t have to just go down and shoot the ball.

“You can run your offense, and wait, and work, and get the best shot you can get instead of settling for any kind of a shot.”

“I’m very happy with their offense efforts tonight. That’s something that we’ve done in a few games this season, and hopefully, we can continue through the rest of the tournament with the offense spread around, like that.”

Montcalm travels to Greater Beckley Christian on Wednesday to play the Crusaders on their home court in the sectional semifinal. The championship is scheduled for Friday, on the home floor of the highest remaining seed.

Montcalm defeated Greater Beckley 40-36 on Dec. 21 in their only meeting this season, in what Havens called “a very competitive game.”

Tug Valley coach Maxine Colegrove said, “We’ve got such a young team. We’ve got those sophomores. At times we played five sophomores on the floor. Next year, from the feeder schools, we’ve got some freshmen coming up.”

The Lady Panthers lose just one senior, Messer. The coach said about this year’s squad, “They’ve grown. They’ve become really close, very close-knit. They’ll learn from this season.”

— Contact Tom Bone at tbone@bdtonline.com

At Montcalm High School

TUG VALLEY

Emily Colegrove 3 7-16 13, Sidney Witt 2 4-6 9, Becka White 1 1-2 3, Kyria Messer 2 0-0 4. Totals 8 12-24 29.

MONTCALM

Savanna Bailey 2 2-2 6, Allison Blevins 2 0-0 4, Heather Nicewander 7 6-10 20, Taylor Dunford 2 0-2 4, Destiny Ball 1 0-0 2, Stormy Carver 3 0-0 6, Brenna Tyree 2 1-2 5. Totals 19 9-16 47.

Tug Valley........................1 8 7 13 — 29

Montcalm......................11 8 10 18 — 47

3-point goals — TV 1 (Witt); MHS none.
Nightly Roundup
Feb 22, 2016 Nightly Roundups
Game Scoreboard
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 OT SCORE
Montcalm 11 8 10 18 0 47
Tug Valley 1 8 7 13 0 29
Home | Game Schedules | Archive Coverage
Player of the Week | Bounce Blog | Memorable Matchups
www.BDTBounce.com
Copyright © BDTBounce.com
All rights reserved. Do not duplicate or redistribute in any form.
Site Designed By: MotionLX, LLC