Creek Valley Girls Upset Potter-Dix

Creek Valley’s Lady Storm basketball team survived a late surge by the Potter-Dix Lady Coyotes to capture the D2-12 Subdistrict title at the Cabela’s Athletic Center in Sidney High School on Thursday night. With the victory, the Lady Storm (12-8, 4-2 in district) advance to the District finals against Hyannis at 6 p.m. on Friday Feb. 23 at Bridgeport High School.

The favored Lady Coyotes had beaten the Lady Storm earlier in the season by 10, and started the game strong with five unanswered points. But the Lady Storm adjusted their defense, and responded

with nine unanswered points to end the first period up 9-5. As the second quarter progressed, Creek Valley continued their strong defensive play while the Potter-Dix squad had trouble handling the ball, committing unforced turnovers and missing easy shots. Creek Valley also had trouble scoring, but their ability to limit Potter-Dix’s Trinity Langley to just two points in the half gave the Lady Storm a 14-9 halftime lead.

The second half started with Creek Valley scoring first, then Potter-Dix tried to respond, but Langley missed her shot and Creek Valley’s Jordyn Koenen followed up with another two to give the Lady Storm an 18-9 lead early in the period. After each team had scored a basket during this time, the defensive highlight of the game occurred when Lady Storm 5’9” senior Payje Misegadis drove to the hoop against 6’0” Lady Coyote senior Trinity Langley and had her shot rejected by Langley so forcefully the ball carried back to half-court then into the Potter-Dix cheering section. Soon after a momentum shift followed, and the Lady Coyotes finally found their scoring touch, with senior Audrey Juelfs hitting a three-point shot to make the score 20-14, then immediately followed with two more points to narrow the score further to 20-16. By the end of the third, the Lady Storm had seen their nine point lead shrink to four, 22-18.

The fourth period continued with Potter-Dix starting and scoring two to narrow the score to 22-20. Creek Valley responded with a score of their own, then a Potter-Dix turnover that was converted into a three-pointer by Payje Misegadis to bring the Lady Storm’s lead back up to 27-20. But the Lady Coyotes battled back again, taking advantage of Creek Valley turnovers and a series of controversial calls to tie the game at 27 with about two minutes left to play. But Creek Valley was able to re-take the lead in the final minute, and Potter-Dix was forced to make fouls to try to get the ball back. This strategy did not work as the Lady Storm were successful from the line and continued to score to put the game out of reach with a final of 36-29 in favor of Creek Valley.

After the win, Creek Valley head coach Missy Koenen commented on the game, and the hard work the entire team had put in during the season. The Lady Storm had struggled against the Lady Coyotes earlier, and when asked what adjustment the team made going into this game, Koenen said, “We had a lot of turnovers the first game, and we worked hard on reducing those.”