JAMESTOWN — Legacy Christian’s confidence and composure enabled the visiting Knights to roll to an impressive 17-point win over Greeneview on Dec. 17 in the Rams’ gym, but Greeneview coach Tim Hoelle was the first to point out that another C-word played a part in the 49-32 win as well.
“Coaching, to be honest,” Hoelle said. “We got out-coached tonight, for sure. Hats off to Legacy. They have a heckuva team. We knew we were gonna be challenged coming into this one. With all the shooters that they have, it’s hard to cover everyone, when they drive and kickout like that. They just played a better game. Hopefully, we can take some things away from this loss.
“We’ve gotta get ready for Cedarville on Thursday. This wasn’t a fun one for us, but I think there’s some things we can learn from this.”
Hoelle’s first-place Rams (5-1 overall, 4-0 OHC) get back into Ohio Heritage Conference play at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 20 against visiting second-place Cedarville.
Veteran LCA coach Mark Combs knew he would be facing a very aggressive Greeneview squad, and so he took advantage of the Rams’ intensity. As a result, the Knights’ Emily Hess scored a season-high 24 points in the win.
“I think we executed tonight. We executed what we were trying to do, and I think our confidence came from that execution,” Combs said. “… (Hess) had a great game. We thought we could do some stuff with her in this game. Greeneview’s very good. Tim Hoelle does an amazing job with them. They are super super aggressive, and their kids get in the passing lanes, so we felt that maybe we could use that against them. We ran some stuff against them, and a lot of that stuff went to Emma, and she did a really good job with it.”
When the Knights patiently worked up a 6-0 lead in the game’s first four minutes of play, there was a sense that the Legacy Christian players felt pretty comfortable with the game plan. Even when Greeneview’s Sylvie Sonneman put the Rams on the scoreboard with a 3-pointer from the left side, LCA quickly responded with an Emily Riddle score the other way.
Sonneman led Greeneview in scoring with 13 points. Caitlin Sweat was next with nine points, while Ellie Snyder, Kenzie Harding and Ashley Schloss combined to score the team’s other 10 points.
Legacy (9-1 overall, 4-0 in the Metro Buckeye Conference) led 10-3 after the first quarter, and a 15-6 run over the final five minutes of the second quarter gave the Knights a 31-14 lead at the half.
Hess scored 19 of her game-high 24 points in the first half, and did not score in the game’s final quarter of play. Kathleen Ahner was the other Knights scorer in double figures, finishing with 10 points, eight of which came in the second half. Margaret Kensinger, Riddle, Maddy Combs and Danielle Matthews combined for the team’s other 15 points. LCA is now enjoying an eight-game winning streak, and they won’t lose another game for the rest of the year. That’s because they don’t play again until Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019, a 2 o’clock home MBC battle with Miami Valley.
“I’m happy for my kids, because they went out and they executed what they were trying to do,” said Combs. “This is my community, Jamestown! And so it’s a bittersweet thing, as always. I know a lot of the families on the other side of that equation. But I’m telling you, they’re going to win a lot of games. They’ve got a lot of good players over there.”
