McDERMOTT — For the first time this campaign, in Thursday night’s Southern Ohio Conference Division II contest versus Northwest, the Valley Lady Indians took the court with their projected preseason starting lineup.

Due to injuries sustained in the preseason and in previous months, it took until the new year to get Coach Tyson Phillips’ Lady Indians together on the court.

Valley (4-7) came away with a 54-31 road win over the Lady Mohawks, while putting three scorers in double figures.

“First game all year that we’ve had everyone back,” Phillips said, after the game. “It was good to get everybody back last Friday, we were able to get a few practices in. We wanted to start pairing our defense to our offense, make it more of an up-and-down game. I thought we did that well at times tonight.”

Senior Madison Montgomery led the Lady Indians with a game-high 20 points on nine field goals and a free throw.

Sixteen of Montgomery’s 20 came in the first half, helping pace a 27-13 Valley lead at the halftime intermission.

Senior Savannah Easter scored 11 points on four field goals and a free throw, while junior Emilie Johnson added 10 points of her own on three field goals and a pair of free throws.

The Valley guards each sank two three pointers in the 23-point win.

Junior Lexie Morrow scored eight points on three field goals and a two-of-two mark at the foul line.

“We’re at our best when it’s not just Madison (Montgomery) — and she had a great game. We have girls like Lexie (Morrow) who can go in and post up, and we’ve got to play inside-out to try and get the best looks,” Phillips said. “We took an emphasis over the two weeks of practice of scoring around the basket and you could tell that paid off tonight. Our girls coming in off the bench were able to come in and fill their roles well. That’s only going to help us in the long run.”

Northwest was led in scoring by freshman Claire Newman, who reached double-figures with 10 points on four field goals and two-made free throws.

Valley returns to action on Saturday in a non-league game at South Point, before getting back into SOC II play with a home game versus Minford.

“Our goal is to get in shape the next few weeks, get a few wins and get ready for tournaments.”

Northwest travels to Waverly on Monday in SOC II play.

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BOX SCORE

Valley 19 8 9 20 — 54

Northwest 5 8 8 10 — 31

Valley (4-7, 3-5 SOC II): Bella Fultz 1 0-0 2, Kelsey LeBrun 1 1-2 3, Lucie Ashkettle 0 0-0 0, Karysn Davis 0 0-0 0, Savannah Easter 4 1-2 11, Emilie Johnson 3 2-2 10, Emilie Barr 0 0-0 0, Lexie Morrow 3 2-2 8, Madison Montgomery 9 1-2 20, Cassidy Montgomery 0 0-0 0; TOTALS: 21 7-10 54; Three-point field goals: 5 (Savannah Easter and Emilie Johnson 2 apiece, Madison Montgomery 1)

Northwest (2-10, 1-7 SOC II): Jayden Moore 0 0-0 0, Karleigh South 2 0-0 4, Sadie Smith 0 0-0 0, Alayna Bazler 0 0-0 0, Hannah Jones 1 0-2 2, Daria Compton 3 0-0 6, Kaylee Johnson 1 0-0 2, Faith Jewett 1 1-2 3, Claire Newman 4 2-4 10, Abby Throckmorton 2 0-0 4; TOTALS: 14 3-8 31; Three-point field goals: none

Reach Jacob Smith at (740) 370-0713 ext. 1930, by email at [email protected], or on Twitter @JacobSmithPDT © 2023 Portsmouth Daily Times, all rights reserved