Lady Squires Advance To Sectional FinalWALTON – Manchester girls basketball will face Rochester in the Class 2A Lewis Cass Sectional final on Saturday after defeating Wabash 41-26 in the semifinals. On the back of their strongest performance behind the arc this season against Lewis Cass, the trend continued Friday night. Kiera Hatfield ignited the offense with nine points from 3-point range. She finished the evening’s affairs with 13 points, three rebounds, and three steals. The Squires scored five threes in total against the Apaches push-starting a 10-2 second quarter run. “I told them to just stay patient,” said head coach Josh Troyer. “Finally, it all kind of clicked. We did a really good job keeping it out of the post player’s hands. I’m really proud of Meyer’s performance.” Sophomore Makenzy Meyer ended the night with nine points, nine rebounds, one assist, and one steal. She was instrumental in shutting down a Wabash team that relies on production from their forwards. “We sat in,” Troyer explained. “They only had one really good shooter in Mattern, but everyone else is 20 percent or less from the field. I told them if you aren’t helping defend Mattern, then help defend against the bigs.” “A lot of times we had three girls defending, and they were still trying to throw it down low,” he continued. “That’s their bread and butter, but we took enough of it away to win tonight.” Wabash worked their way back into the match in the third quarter by switching to a full-court press defense. Manchester was forced to call a timeout after a 7-1 run by the Apaches. “I thought we got a little jittery,” said Troyer. “It was a close game, and we settled down a little bit. We started to make the right reads.” Once Manchester (8-16) adapted to the tactical switch, they cruised in the fourth quarter. The Squires outscored their opponents 11-4 in the last eight minutes. Junior Morgan Parrett recorded six points, five rebounds, and three steals, while junior Emma Garriott finished with a stat line consisting of six points, seven rebounds, and two steals. “We need to do a better job tomorrow,” Troyer said. “Carroll showed a good blueprint tonight by not running with Rochester. We can’t let them get into a track meet. We’re not that style.” The rematch with fellow Three Rivers Conference member Lady Zebras (17-7) will be at 7:30 tonight. Rochester won the TRC matchup 50-30 on Jan. 25, right at two weeks ago. Manchester is going for its first sectional title since 2007.
MANCHESTER 41, WABASH 26 M 7 10 13 11 – 41 W 7 2 13 4 – 26 Manchester (8-16) – Kiera Hatfield 13, Makenzy Meyer 9, Morgan Parrett 6, Emma Garriott 6, Mackenzie Day 4, Beletu Stout 3.
