All-around Effort Pushes Lady Timberwolves Past Decatur Christian
Photo by RR Best
Natalie Jeffers (left) and Paige Harlin (right) double team a Decatur Christian player Monday evening. The Timberwolves’ defense locked down the stretch to ensure the 63-32 win.
January 7, 2015
OV closes out with defensive prowess
By Matt Kracht
NP Sports Reporter
In the Lady Timberwolves first game of the New Year Amanda McClain scored 14 points and added seven rebounds to lead her team to a 63-32 victory over the Lady Warriors from Decatur Christian.
Coming off a big holiday tournament championship the Lady Timberwolves jumped out to a 6-0 lead on 3-pointers by Paige Harlin and Amy Orrris. It looked as though the rout was on, but Decatur Christian decided they had come to play. Behind a strong performance from their center Danielle Popis no. 22, the Lady Warriors closed out the first period with a 10-3 run leaving Okaw Valley’s lead at 11-10. After the game head coach Don Gardener talked about the difficulty in handling Decatur Christian’s best player.
“We have not played in two weeks so we were a little rusty,” he admitted. “We did struggle with no. 22. She is a good ballplayer, and we realized pretty quickly we were going to have our hands full with her. We tried to just go man to man, then we tried the 1-2-2, and then a box-and-1 towards the end seemed to slow her down a little bit.” Popis would lead all scorers for the game with 23 of Decatur Christians 32 points.