Cardinals upset Upper Scioto Valley

NEW BREMEN - Upper Scioto Valley's Emily Patton put on a spectacular one-woman show on Thursday night against New Bremen.

But Patton alone couldn't trump the 32-minute effort put forth by the Cardinals.

New Bremen went punch-for-punch with Patton and the one-loss Rams, and made critical plays in the fourth quarter to score a 61-53 upset decision in non-conference girls basketball action.

"I'm just proud of our girls," New Bremen coach Chris Burden said. "We were 1-4 coming in (but) that's the way we are capable of playing game in and game out. We've been in three of our four losses. If we would have shot the ball a little better in those games, then who knows? But that's in the past."

The future looks bright for New Bremen after Thursday's performance.

The Rams were averaging 68.4 points per game this season on their way to a 5-1 start. Patton (18 ppg.) scored 22 of her 29 points in the second half but the Cardinals never let the game slip away.

Molly Smith tied a season-high with six points in the first quarter and was key during an 8-2 Cardinal run to end the frame that left them ahead 12-10.

New Bremen built a 19-14 advantage early in the second quarter after a hoop down low by Kayla Bergman and a triple by Kelly Naylor, and they remained ahead 24-23 at break.

Patton, who had seven points at the intermission, went on a 7-0 run by herself to begin the third quarter to give the Rams their largest lead at 30-24. But Bremen bounced back with a 16-4 run over the final five minutes of the quarter, finished off by back-to-back buckets by Hanna Tenkman.

USV caught up quickly in the fourth as Patton scored 11 points in the first 4 minutes and 20 seconds, with a 3-pointer tying the score at 45-all. On the Rams' next possession, Shelby Spradlin made a nifty spin move and converted a layup to put them back in front. New Bremen's Abbi Thieman collected an offensive rebound and scored to re-tie the contest moments later.

Then came time for New Bremen to put the "Naylor"-in-the-coffin.

After a defensive stop, Naylor received a pass behind USV's defense and converted a three-point play for a 50-47 lead. The teams swapped turnovers the next three possessions. Facing full-court pressure from the Rams, Naylor took a pass and dribbled through the defense for a layup and a 52-47 lead.

USV's margin was 54-51 with 45 seconds left when New Bremen freshman Macy Puthoff was sent to the charity stripe. Puthoff, who had just missed two free looks, missed two more. But she collected her miss on the second one and was fouled again. This time, she hit both shots and then added two more in the final minute to help the Cardinals finish off an unlikely feat.

"Being a freshman and being put in that spot in a tight ballgame and coming back and hitting four (in a row), that just shows she's grown as a player," Burden said. "She's coming along nicely for us.

"Our girls, as young as they are, they kept their focus and they kept their poise and did the things we asked them to do," he added. "Hopefully that right there helps us to get over that hump. Upper Scioto Valley is a great basketball team. They're athletic. They can shoot. They can get to the hoop. They can rebound. We just hunkered down on the defensive end and didn't let them get to the hoop. We forced them to shoot some outside shots and we were able to get the rebounds. It was a total team effort."

Naylor scored a team-high 16 points to lead Bremen. Jane Homan had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds and Bergman added 10 points.

The Cardinals are off for Christmas and will next play on Tuesday at Lehman.