Johnstown vs licking heights by Adrian Curry
I wasn’t sure what to expect going on. I haven’t seen either team play all season. When a d3 team plays a d1 school it is usually advantage d1 school. Going in licking heights had a 6-game winning streak including an impressive win over #2 seed in division 4 Newark catholic while Johnstown has struggled as most young teams do with a 6-12 record. The game was close early on as each team was feeling each other out. Then a 12-0 run late in the first quarter allowed licking heights to take control. It was also senior night at licking heights as well. Kaitilyn Thompson came in off the bench and was able to give them so scoring off the bench that ignited the 12-0 run. They also received great play from nashayla Coffman who couldn’t be stopped all game. Licking heights was great defensively and was able to block the smaller Johnstown players shots on many occasions. The game was played with a 12-13 point cushion most of the game. Give Johnstown credit they fought hard and had multiple chances to get to single digits but licking heights had an answer every time. Johnstown made licking heights work for the win. Was very impressed with licking heights had multiple players give great contributions. Licking heights went on to win 54-44. With the win licking heights continues their great play going into their tournament raising their record to 12-6 and 8-3 in the lcl. Their next game is the battle of pataskala on Saturday night at watkins Memorial. With the loss Johnstown drops to 6-13 and 2-9 in the lcl. Their next game a league road game at heath on Saturday night. Leading all scorers with 19 points was nashayla Coffman with 19 points while Lauren layman led Johnstown with 15 points. On a personal note, it was nice to see Debbie Merrill as we talked before the game. She is doing a great job coaching the young team at Johnstown. Johnstown is a young Gm team and will be better for being coached by Debbie.