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By Sammy Nance-Murphy

On Friday, December 6 the West Washington (WW) Senators beat Pekin. The final score of the Varsity game was 57-55 and the J.V. score was 51-24.

The entire team played together to achieve the win. “Overall, everyone who played gave very solid minutes. Silas Batt led us with 15 points and had a big first half for us to get us going. Holden Russell had a great floor game scoring 13 points and dished 11 assists with 0 turnovers. Hayden Morrow and Colton Brown did all the little things and both had several rebounds and steals. Hayden had the biggest rebound of the night, hitting the game-winner off an offensive rebound,” head coach Ashton Minton said.

During halftime, the team talked about what changes needed to be made so they could pull through with a win. “We did a great job of adjusting in the second half and making it difficult for Banet. Credit to him, he had an unbelievable first half so we knew we had to come out and give him a different look. The boys did a great job of adjusting defensively. Two games in a row they have done a great job of executing the adjustments we made during halftime. Hopefully, we can keep that up moving forward,” Minton said.

The Senators will continue to work and improve their gameplay. “We need to continue to get better rebounding and making the right decisions when we have a good lead. Both games we have had a decent lead and haven’t seemed to extend it. Moving forward, we hope to make the right decision every possession and finish off the game and extend the lead instead of letting the other team hang around and keep it close,” Minton said.

The game was tied up 55 to 55, but Hayden Morrow made the game-winning shot at the last second. “I think emotions are different for every person on the bench and on the court during a close game. The more calm and collective a player is, usually the more comfortable they are in those moments. In close games, you want the ball in the hands of a player who keeps their composure no matter the time and score of the game,” said Minton.

On December 13, WW will play Paoli at home, and on December 14 they will play Trinity Lutheran away. The J.V. will start at 6 p.m. for both games.

“This weekend will be our first back-to-back weekend of the season. We have to focus on one opponent at a time and execute from night to night. Paoli will be one of the best and most physical teams we play on our schedule so it will be a good challenge for us early in the season to see where we are. Trinity is another good opponent on back-to-back nights. They will play a different style than Paoli so we will have to play multiple styles and speeds in both games,” Minton said.

Left to right: Adam Mull, Noah Deaton, Logan Dent, Noah Daulton, Seth Ponsford, C.J. Ward, Braxton Dean, and Adlar Cox.

Salem Lions Football held their annual banquet on Sunday, December 8, and many players went home with awards:

Most Valuable Player: Adam Mull

Mental Attitude: Noah Deaton

Most Valuable Offensive Player: Logan Dent

Most Valuable Defensive Player: Noah Daulton

Most Valuable Special Teams Player: Seth Ponsford

Most Valuable Lineman: C.J. Ward

Most Valuable Back: Braxton Dean

Most Valuable J.V. Player: Adler Cox

Congratulations on the awards!

Meredith Deaton hustles to save a ball from going out of bounds.

By Josh Lewis, Writer

The Lady Senators defense made short work of Salem on Tuesday night. They forced 38 turnovers and held Salem in check from start to finish, but especially in the second quarter as they caged the Lady Lions 65-17.

Meredith Deaton converted an early and one opportunity to put West Washington ahead 7-0 early. Turnovers quickly became an issue for Salem as West Washington took a 13-0 lead before Rachel Little hit a free throw to get Salem on the board. Karissa Hardy got a put back for Salem’s first field goal to make it 18-3. Deaton ended the quarter with a triple to make it a 21-7 lead to end the first quarter.

The wheels were already wobbly for Salem, but they completely came off in the second quarter. West Washington opened up on a 32-0 run thanks to a bevy of turnovers and a couple threes, including a few from Emma Schmidt to go along with Deaton. Salem got their lone basket in the quarter from Abby Maynard when she got a triple to fall toward the end of the half to make it a 53-10 lead for the Lady Senators.

From there the running clock made the game tick by as the Senators finished off their win. West Washington will host Henryville on Tuesday and Salem will host Paoli on Thursday.

	1	2	3	4	Total
WW	21	32	2	10	65
SHS	7	3	4	3	17

WW scoring: Green 6, A. Schmidt 6, E. Schmidt 15, Deaton 24, Lengel 1, Woods 11, Morrow 2

SHS scoring: A. Hardy 2, Little 6, K. Hardy 4, Maynard 3, Wilson 2

Threes: E. Schmidt, Deaton 3, Maynard

SHS WW BBall 2 Abby Hardy blocks a shot attempt in the post.

Photos by Josh Lewis.

By Josh Lewis, Writer

For the third year in a row, West Washington opened up their season with a win over the Lions. Salem struggled to get shots against the West Washington zone defense, while the Senators were able to keep Salem at arms reach late from the free throw line, shooting 24 to the Lions 2 to win 64-58.

Salem started off hot from the three point line to open the game. Kaiden Romero-Hembree and Adam Mull hit back to back threes to give the Lions the early 6-1 edge. Holden Russell hit a bucket to cut the lead down but Romero-Hembree hit another triple to keep the Lions rolling early. A layup from Mull and a jumper from Braxton Dean gave the Lions a 15-9 lead before Russell hit a three to cut it 15-12 with 13 seconds left in the opening quarter.

Back to back triples from Romero-Hembree had Salem pulling away to start the second quarter. Jackson Brough hit a jumper to give Salem their largest lead 23-14. But fouls and turnovers started to mount for the Lions and West Washington started to live at the charity stripe, a trend for the rest of the game.

Russell hit two free throws to cut the Lions lead down 27-22. Carson Albertson hit a three off the bench for Salem to push the lead back out 30-25. Mull scored with about 40 seconds left to give the Lions a 32-27 advantage going into the locker room.

To open the second half Russell hit two more from the stripe and Hayden Morrow hit a three to tie the game up at 32. A three from Colton Brown gave West Washington their first lead thanks to a couple of early Salem turnovers. Romero-Hembree stopped the run with a triple of his own and another bucket in the post. Russell tied the game back up with a three and an old fashioned three point play. Free throws from Morrow gave the Senators the lead back and another old-fashioned three point play from Russell with 1.7 left in the quarter gave West Washington a 49-41 lead going into the final stanza.

Salem tried to hang around early in the fourth. Mull scored off a steal and Evan Lloyd got a three to fall to make it 51-48, but Brown answered with a three on the other end. Russell converted another three point play to push the lead out 61-52 and put the finishing touches on the win.

	1	2	3	4	Total
WW	12	15	24	13	64
SHS	15	17	9	17	58

WW scoring: Morrow 11, Russell 32, Ables 2, Marrs 2, C. Brown 13, T. Brown 2, Batt 2

SHS scoring: Mull 15, Schocke 2, Lloyd 3, Dean 11, Brough 4, Albertson 3, Romero-Hembree 17

Threes: Morrow, Russell 2, C. Brown 2, Mull, Lloyd, Dean, Romero-Hembree 5, Albertson

SHS WW BBall 4 Nash Ables saves a loose ball.

SHS WW BBall 3 Kaiden Romero-Hembree goes up for 2 of his team high 17.

SHS WW BBall 6 Holden Russell lets a three ball fly.

Photos by Josh Lewis.

Addison Smith gets an easy two of her game high 18 points.

By Josh Lewis, Writer

For the first time since the 2016-17 season, the Eastern Lady Musketeers topped the Lady Lions of Salem. Eastern’s defense forced turnovers in waves to keep Salem from gaining any kind of momentum on offense. Eastern forced 35 turnovers to help them put Salem away 69-20.

Eastern Head Coach Taylor Drury said she thought her team played a complete game against Salem. “This week was all about us. We hadn’t played our version of basketball like I wanted us to all year. I thought we came out and tried to do that. We played as a unit offensively and defensively. I was very pleased with that as far as everything goes.”

Eastern took an early lead thanks to the sharp shooting thanks to a couple of threes from Bailey Trainor to put the Musketeers ahead 11-2. Turnovers for the Lions as Addison Smith hit a three to push the lead 16-3. Alexis Maudlin got a floater to fall to make it a 18-5 game late in the first.

Trainor drained another three for Eastern to open the second quarter and the lead ballooned to 25-5. Rachel Little came off the bench for Salem and scored two straight baskets to cut the lead 30-10. Abby Hardy hit two free throws, but Eastern just kept plugging away and built up a 37-13 lead heading into the break.

“I felt like we might have potential to do that going through the season. I would like to capitalize on that more often,” said Drury. “Tonight we got the chance to debut it and see how it looked and see what we need to work on. It looked pretty good. There are some things we have to tweak but overall I was pretty happy with it.”

The Smith sisters continued their barrage for Eastern in the second quarter. Addison found Avery for a layup and then Addison got a bucket of her own to push the lead to 53-18 and Eastern cruised to their win from there.

Eastern will host Henryville on Wednesday while Salem will host West Washington on Tuesday.

SHS scoring: A. Hardy 2, Little 4, Maudlin 3, K. Hardy 5, Maynard 2, Walters 1, Wilson 3

EHS scoring: Trainor 11, Burton 8, Ad. Smith 18, Hauner 5, Av. Smith 7, Robbins 13, Brawner 5, Jackson 2

Threes: K. Hardy, Trainor 3, Ad. Smith, Hauner, Robbins