MEESE

Izzy Meese from the top of the key for three. Izzy Meese driving down the lane for a twisting lay-up. Izzy Meese beating the buzzer not once, but twice.Meese was the stuff nightmares are made of for Matt Ward and his Tusky Valley Trojans when they squared off with Garaway Wednesday, Jan. 13 in Sugarcreek.Meese went off for 30 points in the first three quarters alone, and the Lady Pirates blew open a tight first half contest to cruise to a 62-43 victory.“I think it started early in the second quarter when I hit a step-back three,” said Meese of her scoring prowess. “I looked over at coach, and he gave me that, ‘It’s a good thing you made it’ look.”Meese has proven to be a very capable passer, and while she can fill up the assist column, on this night, it was all about getting hot and staying hot. “It’s easy to want to pass to my teammates, because they do work so hard to get open, but I really was starting to feel it tonight, so I looked to score,” said Meese.Early on, Kayla Hall scored six points to spot the Trojans to a 9-8 lead, and Meese had scored all eight of those Garaway points.Jenna Franks drove inside for two to make it 11-8, but Garaway’s Sydney Mullet hit the first of three of her 3-pointers to tie the score. That was when Meese knocked down the first of two buzzer-beaters on the night, this one a long trey to give the Lady Pirates a 14-11 edge after one.Tusky Valley quickly went to work to begin the second. Jadyn Kuykendall hit a runner in the lane, and Hall scored twice on the block to give the Trojans a 17-14 lead. Meese scored inside, Franks answered and Meese then drained her step-back trey to tie the score at 19. Moments later, Katya Misko scored inside off a sweet pass from Mullet, but the Trojans responded with a pair of threes from Boston McKinney and Kuykendall to gain a 25-21 edge. Garaway would have the final say over the last two minutes of the half, however. A pair of Courtney Werker scores inside, a Mullet free throw and Meese’s triple gave Garaway a 31-27 lead at the half. Meese was killing it, with 22 points.“When you’re hot, you’re hot, and Izzy played a really good game tonight,” said Garaway coach Jim Monigold. “She was seeing it well, and we went to her.”Tusky Valley scored inside to make it 31-29 to open the second half, then Garaway imposed its will. While Tusky Valley (9-5) seemed poised to make a game of it after the first half, Ward said the game boiled down to one simple word. Defense.In the second half, Garaway played some stone wall defense, while Ward said his crew simply didn’t give enough effort to deserve to win the game.“We didn’t do much defensively the whole game, while they made us feel that much more uncomfortable on offense in the second half, and we didn’t execute the way we needed to. We knew coming in that Meese was a nice player, but we didn’t stop them one time defensively the entire night, which is odd for us because that has been our strength up until this point. This was pretty uncharacteristic for us, but this is a talented, athletic Garaway team.”Monigold couldn’t argue with that point, at least from his team’s defensive perspective.“Our defense decided to show up,” said Monigold of the second half effort. “The first half, we weren’t talking, we weren’t seeing the ball and a couple of passes got inside to people that we didn’t even know were on the block. That is not being focused and ready to go.”Monigold made it known at the half that things needed to change, and did they ever. After giving up 27 points in the first half, Garaway basically shut down the Trojans, limiting them to just nine second half points, aside from five late points in mop-up time.“That’s the way we should be playing defense,” said Monigold.Offensively, Garaway scored almost at will at times. Kendra Miller scored on a pair of free throws, Werker drained a triple and Meese hit an and-one to make it 39-29, the first big lead of the game for either team. Hall hit two free throws, but Garaway then reeled off six straight to push the lead to 45-32. Hall scored the final four points of the quarter to give the Trojans hope at 45-36 heading into the fourth, but Garaway dominated the game from there out.It started with an impressive 12-0 run to begin the quarter, a quarter in which Meese did not score any of her 30 points. Misko scored on a put-back, then connected on a gorgeous and-one. By the time Mullet hit a 3-pointer and added as pair of free throws, it was 57-36. That was for all intent, the game. Mullet later hit another trey to give the Lady Pirates their largest lead at 60-38, but this one was in the books, a W for Garaway.The Lady Pirates improved to 12-2, its two losses coming to a pair of powerful foes in Carrollton and Hiland. But Monigold said his team is playing much better now than they were when they faced Carrollton early on.“We are improving every day, and while we have things we can improve on, it’s coming.”These two teams could very well meet again in district tournament play, and Ward said they have to make some changes if they want to compete with the Lady Pirates.“We have to play better on both ends of the floor, but we have to give a much better effort as a team than we gave tonight,” said Ward. “They are going to be the team to beat in our district, but we feel we can play much better basketball than we played tonight.”Aside from Meese, Garaway got 12 points from Mullet, seven apiece from Misko and Werker and four from Miller. Tusky Valley was paced by Hall’s 14, while Kierrah Stewart, Kuykendall and McKinney each added six, Toria Cope scored five and Franks chipped in with four.