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Burton, Ohio – The Mayfield Wildcats girls’ basketball team took one on the chin on Friday evening as Copley handed them a crushing 53-19 loss for their third straight defeat to open the season.
The Wildcats showed some resiliency as they traveled to Berkshire High School to face off against the Badgers and snapped their losing streak by pulling away late in the fourth quarter to secure a 48-34 victory for their first season victory on Saturday afternoon.
“Copley’s a good team. They took it to us last night,” said Mayfield Head Coach Ryan Looman, “We just didn’t play well. We didn’t play well in any phase of the game. We came in this morning and said, ‘We know it’s a back-to-back. Energy, execution and effort have to be our priorities.’”
It was a shaky start for both schools. It was clear that there was some rust playing on a Saturday afternoon. This match-up between the Wildcats (1-3) and Berkshire (0-2) wasn’t even originally on the docket. Due to the upheaval of the schedule because of the pandemic both schools made arrangements to have this game played with just four days’ notice.
It looked to be a low-scoring affair early as both teams’ offenses were sluggish and were having trouble maintaining control of the ball. The Badgers only managed one field goal throughout the first quarter. Six of their eight points came via the charity stripe.
“They were pressing us a lot. That’s just our youth showing through. Once we broke pressure we got to do a better job of flowing into our offense. We did it at times because we were getting shots that we want, shots that we work on,” said Berkshire Head Coach James Bosley.
Things started to pick up in the second quarter. The Wildcats’ offense started to gain some momentum thanks to the efforts of sophomore Uriah Jennings. She poured in six points in the second frame to help push Mayfield out to a 26-19 lead at halftime.
The five-foot-seven sophomore enjoyed one of the best games of her career. Jennings played all of 18 games the previous season so there is a raw element to her game. The finer points certainly showed as she played lock-down defense and generated a number of fast-break opportunities.
“I couldn’t do this without my teammates,” said the Wildcats’ sophomore, “My teammates did a good job in giving me confidence. It was a team-effort.”
The Badgers fought back in the second half. Mayfield looked to be pulling away as it pushed the lead out to 32-23 but Berkshire ripped off four straight points to cut it to just a six-point game.
“I think we could’ve played better especially in phases of the second and third quarter we kind of eased off a little bit but we closed the game well and that’s what matters,” said Mayfield Head Coach Looman.
The Wildcats got back into a rhythm and extended their lead back to seven points to end the third quarter. The Badgers started to run out of gas as they relied heavily on a six-man rotation throughout the game. After struggling with ball control all game Mayfield tightened it up in the fourth as it only committed three turnovers. As their defense continued to give the Badgers all sorts of trouble the Wildcats got some help from junior forward Hannah Peterson.
The six-foot-zero forward had been a force in the paint all afternoon but did her best work in the final quarter as she secured a handful of offensive rebounds to help keep possessions alive. She was also a brick wall underneath the basket and made life tough for any Berkshire player driving into the paint. Peterson chipped in six points in the final quarter to help close the game out. The Wildcats’ junior is making up for lost time this season as she missed all of last season with a torn labrum. She’s not fully back to game shape but Saturday’s game was a big step in the right direction.
Mayfield is preparing to play its next game on the road against Perry on Wednesday evening while Berkshire’s next game appears to be undetermined.
Mayfield Player of the Game:
Sophomore Uriah Jennings: 19 points, three rebounds and three assists
Berkshire Player of the Game:
Sophomore Maddy Triskett: 10 points and three rebounds
