by ROCKY RIVER, OH – It was a successful senior night at Lutheran West this evening as they captured a sound 54-26 victory over the Mizrachi Mayhem. The Longhorns overcame the rapid shooting of three-point attempts from the Mayhem to secure nearly 50 defensive rebounds as well as spread the ball around as 8 different players scored next to only 3 players scoring for the Mayhem.
As mentioned, the love was spread around nicely for the Longhorns as plenty of them got into the mix, led by Maddie Kandrach with 12 and Aliciana Medina with 11 while Ella Heisner finished with 10. Sunny Meyer and Chloe Campbell each finished with 6 while Ava Carter tallied 3. Alivia Adams, Taylor Petrime and Addy Esposito each finished with 2.
The Mayhem were led by Izzy Wilbur with 20 while Dahlia Messeloff had 4 and Kayla Beer 2.
I spoke with first year head coach Becky Mooney Thompson on the importance of the win on Senior Night, “This was so important for them and we wanted to play united and show what Lutheran West basketball is about and what we have worked so hard for this year.”
The Longhorn defense was outstanding despite the rather unique form of offense they were facing, holding the Mayhem to only two points in the entire first quarter and those two points didn’t come until only 39 seconds remained in the quarter. Coach Thompson reflected on the team defense tonight as well, “We always want to set the tone and defense wins games, so that is always what we try to concentrate on first.”
That was the case tonight as the Longhorns raced out to a 17-2 lead after one. While the defense weathered a unique style of offense that saw a barrage of three point attempts, their offense was well balanced as 7 different Longhorns scored in the first quarter alone.
The second quarter was very much the same story again as Aliciana Medina scored 4 in the quarter as the Longhorns were able to extend the lead to 27-8 by halftime. Again, it was Wilbur doing the damage for the Mayhem as she had all 8 points for her team at the break.
The Longhorns went on a 7-3 to start the second half, highlighted by a Chloe Campell three to extend the lead to 34-11 midway through the quarter. Later on Dahlia Messeloff nailed two picture perfect foul shots to become the first Mayhem player besides Wilbur to score, narrowing the gap just a bit as it was now 38-13 after three,
Wilbur went off in the fourth as she scored 9 of her teams 13 fourth quarter points, but by then it was too little too late as the Longhorns pulled off the 54-26 victory.
The Longhorns finish the season at 16-6 as they prepare for their first round playoff matchup versus Shaw next Thursday night the 19th at home. I spoke with Coach Thompson about the focus heading into the playoffs, “We’re going to take the unity that we built on for this entire season and that is how were going to be successful. “
In closing, congrats to the seniors on a wonderful career and good luck week against Shaw!
