West Muskingum Girl’s Continue Hot Stretch, Upset New Lexington

NEW LEXINGTON, OH- Earlier this afternoon we had the battle of 1 vs 2 in the MVL small school division for girl’s basketball. West Muskingum is riding hot, can that recent success continue against an 8-0 in league New Lexington team?

First quarter of action Aubri Spicer drives and gives it to Chloe Dick who gets the pull up floater to fall 8-7 Panthers.

Then later Spicer adds a three pointer. New Lexington led 13-7 after a quarter of play.

West Muskingum after the quarter break was locked in, Jayden Thornton’s stretch pass goes to Caitlyn Drake and the short lay in is good. Tornadoes down 6.

Now with a minute to go before half Thornton to Drake works again to perfection. Bench is rocking. 17-15 at halftime. New Lex 14 first half turnovers.

Out of the break Panthers showing why they’re undefeated in the MVL. Dick to Kim Kellogg and her jumper is on point. Kellogg had six in the game.

West M did not go away Taylor Spung sets her feet and takes the charge! Tied at 25 in the fourth.

Later in the quarter, Gracie Settles gets it to Drake and he gets the shot to fall. 29-25 west m with two minutes left and after some clutch free throws, the Tornadoes take down the first place New Lexington Panthers in a classic. Earlier this week West M beat second place Meadowbrook. Coach Josh Middleton on his team’s performance tonight and what worked this week.

“It’s a big victory it’s a big victory morally it’s a big victory physically. Every aspect of the game we came out we played hard tonight. We talk every day at practice about focusing on our free throws because most of the time they want to laugh and goof around, and they don’t think it’s going to come down to them shooting them. I think two or three girls stepped up really big tonight and hit some clutch free throws. I mean those are two great teams and two road wins. That’s a big deal coming towards tournament time. A couple weeks from now we’ll be thinking about tournament. So New Lex is a great team and they are well coached. For us to come in here and get a win in a hostile environment is huge because we haven’t beat them in the last couple years so for us to come in here and do that, that’s a big hurdle we overcame,” coach Josh Middleton.

The Tornadoes will be back in action on Monday against Lakewood.