Hardwood Heroes
Federal Hocking girls keep on rolling with win over Belpre
By: Reese Thompson
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BELPRE, Ohio (WOUB) – The Federal Hocking girls basketball team (10-8) has reached new heights after winning their hard fought matchup against Belpre (3-15) on Monday night.
Breaking their three game losing streak, the Lady Lancers pulled away with a 53-50 win. The game came down to the final second when the Lancers went into high gear. When it came to making shots, the team surpassed the scoring slump in the early minutes of the game.
In the fourth quarter, Federal Hocking scored a high of 23 points, over the amount of combined points in the first and second quarter. While Belpre scored 12 points consistently in the second, third, and fourth quarter.
After Belpre held the lead for the majority of the game, the Lancers’ Bella McVey tied the game 45-45 with a three-pointer. She didn’t stop there, she broke the tie with another shot from beyond the arc to extend the Lady Lancers’ lead 48-45. McVey single handedly brought the Lancers to victory with three essential three-point buckets in the fourth quarter.
“Bella, she really needed that,” Assistant Coach Gage Ash said, “I’m super proud of that game from her, physically, defensively, it’s not just the three’s but those three’s, she really needed to see those fall and we are extremely proud of her.”
Not only was this game a big moment for McVey on the court, but for her, it was all about putting everything out on the floor before she graduates.
“I’m a senior, I got about four games left,” McVey explained, “it just kind of clicked that this is my last chance and I just want to give it my all.”
The team has been putting emphasis on communication during the games. For the Lancers, that was the major factor that finally clicked on the hardwood when it was needed in crunch time.
“We have talked about that a lot in practice, we have done a lot of drills,” McVey said, “I feel like everyone has gave 110% since then and it shows. We got results.”
Along with McVey, Takira Walker was the go-to girl when it comes to driving the ball down the court. She scored eight points and showed up for her teammates on all sides of the court. One of the key concepts the team has been focusing on to up their game is physicality, Walker was able to turn practice into points at the expense of the Eagles.
“We’ve been practicing physicality for months,” said Gage, “and tonight we did that. We’ve been preaching mentality stuff and it worked tonight. We finally showed up, and we are proud of it.”
As playoff season rolls around, Assistant Coach Trystan Peyton is confident in the Lancers’ ability to succeed.
“We’re definitely going to make a playoff push, our goal is to win a playoff game this year because we didn’t win one last year and we are going to continue grinding towards that.”
On Monday, Federal Hocking takes a trip to Trimble in hopes to build off of their latest victory.