GHV girls fall to West Fork in season opener

Sluggish defense caused problems for the Garner-Hayfield/Ventura girls as they dropped the opening game of the season to West Fork, 49-37, on Tuesday, Nov. 26.

“I expected our offense to struggle, but did not expect our defense to be as poor as it was,” said Coach Matt Erpelding.

The Warhawks came out ready to play and jumped to a 12 point lead in the first quarter.  The Cardinal defense made 

some adjustments and stepped it up in the second quarter to hold West Fork to only two points.  Unfortunately, the Warhawks made some adjustments of their own during halftime and played a solid second half to capture the victory.

“Our defensive positioning and rotation was very bad most of the night,” said Erpelding.  “We were late rotating, which gave them way too many shots right around the rim.”

West Fork shot 55 percent from the floor, which was a good indication of GHV’s defensive skills.

Coach Erpelding credited West Fork’s quickness and ability to take advantage of slow defense to attack the basket and find the open teammate.

“Their quickness also caused us difficulty getting into a good flow on the offensive end,” said Erpelding.

Maddie Tusha led the Cardinals with a game high 16 points.  She connected on two three-point shots.  Emily Spilman also scored in double figures for GHV with 12 points.  Rounding out the scoring was Shelby Rayhons with four points and Mackenzie Haag and Tiara Van Gerpen scored two points apiece.  Mackenzie Van Gerpen scored one point.

Tusha also led the team under the boards with six rebounds.  Haag had four, while Sydney Younge, Mackenzie Van Gerpen and Rayhons had three rebounds apiece.

Spilman led the team in both assists and steals, with four assists and five steals.  Tusha had three steals and Mackenzie Van Gerpen had two steals.

GHV travels to North Butler on Satuday, Dec. 7.