2013-4 Season Chapter Four - MV 67 - Northwood 15 - All In - Game Story

December 9, 2013 - Varsity Gym

On an ice cold evening, the Hawks played red hot defense and held an opponent under 20 points for the second time in three games, defeating the Northwood Rangers 67-15.   Coach Josh Arthur has now cemented an'all in' strategy of playing every one of his Hawks as interchangeable parts of all pressure, all the time defense.  Maumee Valley advanced to 3-1 on the season.

Northwood has a new coach in Jimmy Scharer and is rebuilding the Rangers this season.  Nine of the eleven Ranger varsity players are freshmen or sophomores and only one player is listed at over 6'.  Their youth was evident throughout the game as they struggled at times with the speed of the high school game.  Early on, they showed signs of future success with some good shooting. Overall though, the evening would belong to the home team in general and Thad Woodard in particular, who scored a career high 26 points on the evening.

To put the defense in perspective tonight, Northwood scored six points in the first quarter.   That was their high for the evening and each quarter thereafter they scored a lower number of points.

MV Starters - Marcus Knabbs '14, Lucas Isaza '15, Nick Towns '15, Rashad Woodley '14, Thad Woodard '14

First Quarter - MV 16 - Northwood 6

Maumee Valley set the tone immediately, scoring the first basket, then two more quickly off back-court steals.  MV's defense is on display below in a long stretch of frustration for the guests resulting in a turnover on the baseline.



Truth Foreman and Thad both scored three pointers, Thad's shot captured below ended the quarter:



Second quarter - MV 15 - Northwood 4

MV picked up the press early on, hoping to advance its lead, but Northwood fought gamely for the first part of the quarter.  Four minutes into the second quarter, the score was 17-10 MV.  From that point forward, the Hawks took over the game.  MV's press got to the young Rangers, who gave up a series of fast break points off steals and other turnovers.  Lucas Isaza scores here on a breakaway following a steal on the press to make it 27-10 Hawks:



The home team would add four more in the frame and at half time it was Hawks 31 - Northwood 10, with Thad's 19 points accounting for 61.2% of the MV output.

Third Quarter - MV 21 - Northwood 3

Thad Woodard picked up where he left off in the first half, scoring a three poninter to begin the action.  Rashad Woodley scored next on this nice drive down the key from the high post:



More scoring from the quarter included Truth Foreman finishing up a break then more defense from the Hawks:



And lo it came to pass on this December evening that Northwood's Jayson Johnson scored at the 2:37 mark to end a 9:23 scoring drought for the visitors.  Maumee Valley had completed a 30-0 run against their opponents.

The third quarter ended on a Keith McClure three pointer.  He was just getting started...

Fourth Quarter - MV 14 - Northwood 2

Keith would score the first six points of the quarter - here is his third long ball in a row at the 6:46 mark.:



Our final highlight features Danny Hazimah driving to the hoop for two more points:




The Hawks would cruise to the 52 point win.

Scoring:
Truth Foreman - 10
Danny Hazimah - 5
Marcus Knabbs - 2
Keith McClure - 11
Lucas Isaza - 4
Nick Towns - 4
Thad Woodard - 26
Solomon Collins - 3
Rashad Woodley - 2

MV 50 – Liberty Center 20 – Quick Summary

The Hawks made the most of their first visit to Henry County and smacked the Liberty Center Tigers by 30 tonight. MV led 11-2 at the end of the first, 24-7 at the half and well, you get the picture. Liberty Center did not break double digits in any quarter, and in fact did not score their first points until the 4:00 mark of the first.

The HawkNation rained three’s down on the home team, shooting a sizzling 9 for 16 from beyond the arc. Five of MV’s final six scores were three point shots.

Julius Turner led the way for the Hawks with 12 tonight. Rick Deichert and Jon Krueger each had 9, Jared Sturt 8, Marcus Knabbs 5, Caleb Willhight 3, Dixon Stoddard and Dave Brown 2.

Notable MVCDS-ers Tyler Boehm, Carter Bayer and Karla Luketic were among those in attendence tonight, scouting the varsity in advance of Tuesday's Alumni Holiday Hoops extravaganza at the Valley.

The JVs struggled to score in the opener, and dropped a 18-15 contest to the hosts.

Defense Wins Championships

Why are the varsity boys winning?   The table below shows each opponent's score against MV, their average score in all other games and the difference. 

Every team except Central Catholic is scoring below its average - some schools are waaaaay below their average.

Overall, MV's opponents are averaging 40.3 points per game against MV (including Central's 77) and score on average 50.6 points per game against everyone else.