Spartans Attempt First MUM Tournament Title Since 1999
Middletown, OH (December 29, 2005)— The last time the Spartans won it all was back in 1999. The last century by all accounts. The 2005 team has something to say about becoming this century's tournament champion.
The Lady Spartans cruised to their first win in a decisive round one decision, 73-15 over the Xenia Christian Ambassadors. Xenia never could get on track, scoring only two points in both the opening and closing frames, to fall to 1-7 overall and advancing to Friday's consolation rounds.
The Ambassador's scored the first two points before Valley View put on a full-court press, that shut the young Xenia team down the remainder of the first quarter, and saw them score 18 unaswered points.
Spartan coach, Steve Dickson seemed pleased with his teams performance. "I like the way everyone came out and played. It was nice to see after a couple of days off."
"Everyone had great output," Dickson went on to say.
Dickson rotated the entire bench in and out of the game during the second half, including the four jv players that made the trip.
"Those girls played fantastic. Give Russ (JV coach, Russ Wallace) all the credit. He's has great patience with his team and that has really made them into something that other teams have to reckon with."
Dickson's being too modest. His own squad of eight girls has so much depth that on any given day he could start anyone of them.
"My biggest problem is, who is going to start each night's game? On any given night anyone of them can score and that makes it difficult deciding who to put out there on the floor. They're going to all see playing time throughout a game, that I do know."
So far, he's been right. The Spartans are off to a 6-1 start and have their sites set on capturing the MUM title before turning to 2006 and an SWBL league championship.
" We like coming down here. It's a well run tournament. Whoever we play in the next game though, could probably be our toughest competition of the year. We're going to have to focus and continue improve each game. We still have a lot of basketball left in the season."
| Valley View | 18 | 40 | 56 | 73 |
| Xenia Christian | 2 | 7 | 13 | 15 |
Scoring: Barker 12, Moore 11, Tipton 10, Kerns 8, Hogg 8, Smith 8, Rowlands 6, Thacker 4, Hanahan 4, Lakes 2
