FLASHES TAKE A BIG STEP IN THE MVAC
By Ty Bartell
LEAVITTSBURG OH- Inside of Your Sports Networks, many girls basketball conferences look to be competitive this season, with multiple teams competing for each and every conference represented on the network. Of all those conferences, none may be as competitive as the Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference’s (MVAC) Gray Division. With a good five of eight teams having a good shot at coming away with the conference crown, two of which battled on Thursday night when The Champion Flashes took a stroll down the road to Leavittsburg to battle The LaBrae Vikings!
Both teams already having a successful start to the season with The Flashes were sporting a 4-1 record and a 1-0 conference record, meanwhile, LaBrae was 5-0 and a 2-0 conference clip heading into Thursday. The Vikings came out swinging and delivered a heavy blow to Champion in the first quarter, jumping out to an early 11-1 lead. The Flashes managed a couple buckets, but LaBrae still held the 8 point lead at 13-5 after a quarter. In the second quarter, Isabella Meyer started heating up and willing Champion back into the contest. Effectively knotting the game up twice in the second, The Vikings still managed to hold the lead heading into halftime, this time with a slimmer 29-25 lead.
In the third quarter, Champion finally managed to find themselves in front once again. Battling back down double digits, not once but twice, against The Vikings. Champion got contributions from Kennedy Caldwell and Kayla Haynie to help take a 39-38 lead into the fourth quarter! Both teams would scrap tooth and nail till the very end, but it was Champion who stood atop The Vikings 52-49 in the first of two Trumbull County wars this year between the two programs.
Isabella Meyer got Player of the Game honors with her 24 points to lead The Flashes, Meyer also showed off those active hands that have averaged just under 5 steals a game this season, more than meeting her season average against The Vikings. Behind Meyer, Kennedy Caldwell finished with 7 points and Kayla Haynie had 6 points in the game. For LaBrae, they were led by Ella Kuszmaul who finished with a tough 19 points on the night. Also with a productive night for The Vikings was Mariah Jones who came away with a ton of boards in the post while putting up 11 points of offense.
Champion (5-1)(2-0) now looks ahead to Monday, December 18th when they travel to Campbell-Memorial (1-4)(0-2) to battle The Red Devils. LaBrae (5-1)(2-1) will try to get back on track when they also stay inside the MVAC, traveling to Brookfield (1-3)(1-0) also on Monday. YSN is your place for all MVAC action this winter sports season, be sure to catch live games, scores, stats, stories and more on the network!
