The Badin game wraps up a challenging gauntlet that included a game at Ross on Thursday, at Mount Healthy on Saturday, at Eaton on Monday and at Northwest on Wednesday.
“We (originally) only had two games this week,” fourth-year Talawanda coach Mary Jo Huismann said on Wednesday. “We put (the Badin game) on, thinking it would be OK. We’re still short one game. We still haven’t been able to reschedule Taylor yet.”
Fortunately for the Brave, they entered this stretch in relatively good position. WIth the 56-32 win over the Cougars on Wednesday night, the Brave moved to 11-2 overall and 5-1 in the SWOC, a half-game ahead of 5-2 Mount Healthy.
Halee McDade with the assist to McKenna Weekley for the layup. Go Brave! @Mr_YorkRB4T @THSTheTribe @THSBoosters @TalawandaHS @bravedailynews pic.twitter.com/5mhp7g1PtY
— TALAWANDA ATHLETICS (@ths_brave) January 20, 2022
While pursuing their first SWOC championship since sharing the 2015-2016 title with two other teams and their first outright trophy since the 2013-2014 season, the Brave already have surpassed their win total from last season’s 10-12 team and have guaranteed their first winning season since going 16-7 in 2016-2017. Huismann, who’s in her 50th season of coaching local high school girls basketball, pointed out several reasons.
“We started two freshmen last year who are pretty good,” she said, referring to 5-foot-6 McKenna Weekley and 5-9 Myah Keene. “Junior Kylee Fears is in her third year on varsity. She’s led the SWOC in almost everything the past couple of years. Then we had a transfer come in. Taylor Farris transferred from Northeastern in Indiana. She played with the (AAU) Dayton Hoopstars, but I didn’t know about her. I got a phone call from her aunt saying she wanted to transfer. I said, “OK. C’mon, bring her down, and let’s do a couple of things.’ She came in, and I said, ‘Holy crap. She’s really good.’
“ ... She’s more of a guard-type. Her big thing is assists, but she can shoot outside and inside. She complements Fears well.
“Basically, we had everybody back.”
The 6-foot Fears, a first-team all-conference pick each of the last two seasons, notched season highs in points (22) and rebounds (21) Wednesday. She’s third in the SWOC at 16.0 points per game, first with an average of 12.8 rebounds per game and third with an average of 1.6 blocks per game. Farris is fifth in scoring at 13.2 points per game, second with 3.7 assists per game and fifth with an average of 2.8 steals per game. Kaelyn Wright, a 5-6 junior, was fourth with 2.8 assists per game.
Keene and 5-2 senior Eva Motta were second-team picks last season, while Wright earned honorable mention.
Talawanda opened the season with a nine-game winning streak before losing two of three -- 50-39 at St. Ursula on Jan. 3. and 45-36 on Monday at Harrison.
“We shouldn’t have lost to Harrison,” Huismann lamented. “They played well, but in the first half, we shot 21 percent. They shot 56 percent, and we were still down by only eight. In the second half, we maybe got it up to 25 percent.
“I think we’re still trying to get it all together. Coaches usually say at this point that ‘We have good chemistry.’ I’m not saying we don’t, but we’re working on it. At one point, we had four kids with COVID at one time. They’re still having a hard time going up and down the court. We had two more kids who were around people (with COVID) and weren’t there.
“We have the talent. I think we’re really close to playing better.”
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