Big second quarter lifts Wolverines in win Rams on road

East Mills used a 20-9 second quarter to build a lead and held on late in a 58-51 victory over Essex in Corner Conference girls basketball Friday.

The loss drops the Wolverines to 11-6 overall and 5-3 in the Corner Conference.

Riley Jensen led the Trojanns in double figures with 14 points. Emma Barrett and Elis Dailey added 13 points each.

Griswold 36,
East Mills 25

East Mills dug itself a hole.

Not a deep hole but with the Wolverines playing without leading scorer Emily Williams and struggling to score, it was too much to dig out of in a 36-25 loss to the Tigers last Tuesday night in Malvern.

The Wolverines struggled offensively right from the tip. They turned the ball over eight times and connected on just 3-of-11 shots in the first quarter.

East Mills coach Blair Holman said the Tigers’ 1-2-2 zone gave them trouble but even when his team did get open looks, they weren’t knocking them down.

“That was by far the lowest percentage in a game we’ve shot all year,” said Holman of his team’s shooting. “Especially in the first quarter. We didn’t get shots up because we just kept turning the ball over again and again and again. Finally we settled down and we started to get good looks and, sometimes, you know like last night we were hitting them, and tonight we weren’t and that’s the game of basketball.”

East Mills trailed by as many as nine in the first half.  That lead swelled to 12 in the second half. The Wolverines got a three-pointer by Aspen Crouse to cut the lead to seven with 7:19 to go and then a pair of free throws by Crouse with just under four minutes to go to make it 30-25 but they would get no closer.

The Wolverines had just one field goal the final 6:49 of the game.

Williams, East Mills leading scorer and rebounder, sat out the game after suffering a knee injury in Monday’s 74-41 win over West Harrison. Her status for the remainder of the season is up in the air, Holman said. Not having her presence on the floor was tough on his team.

“It hurt,” Holman said. “Any time you lose your best player it sucks and the girls are adjusting to it. We’ve got no choice but to keep at them. We’ve got three games this week and two next week so we will see what happens with her down the road.”
Natalie Goodman led East Mills with 10 points.

Josie Mundorf paced Griswold with 18 points.

East Mills 74,
West Harrison 41

Miah Urban scored 29 points and Aspen Crouse 23 for East Mills in a 74-41 victory over West Harrison in non-conference girls basketball last Monday in Malvern.

Urban connected on 11-of-24 shots, including 5-of-10 from behind the arc, for her game-high night. She also grabbed eight rebounds, dished out five assists and had six steals.

Crouse was 9-of-14 from the field and added three steals.

West Harrison was led by Emily McIntosh with 21 points.