Natalie Harlan Leads Southview To 46-42 Win At Springfield
BY ANDREW ROWER — MIRROR SPORTS
Southview junior forward Natalie Harlan racked up 13 points, 10 rebounds and two steals last Tuesday as the Cougars managed to outlast Springfield 46-42 on the road.
“Natalie was struggling early in the year just finding out where her place was,” said Southview coach Tim Nottke. “The last week in practice, it’s like something clicked and she stepped up tonight and just played huge for us.”
Along with fellow Southview juniors Morgan Ersig, Lexi Lopez, Makaila Marshall and Madi Thomas, Harlan helped the Cougars out-rebound the undersized Blue Devils 44-27 – scoring eight points directly off putbacks in the four-point victory.
“The rebounding has been huge for us,” Nottke said. “We don’t shoot for a high percentage, so we can help ourselves with offensive rebounds.
“We’re also starting to understand that if we only give the other team one shot, it makes our job that much simpler when we get to the offensive end. They are starting to buy into that.”
Another key advantage for Southview came at the free throw line, where Ersig, Harlan, Lopez, Marshall and Thomas combined to sink an impressive 20 of their 25 foul shots on the night.
“We’re very similar to Springfield other than the fact that we have some bigger kids,” Nottke said. “We thought if we could get the ball inside and take advantage of some of our size, we should be able to get to the foul line or get easy baskets.
“We didn’t really get a ton of easy baskets, but we did get to the foul line and we knocked them down, so that was really huge.”
Despite the lopsided statistics, though, the game was really either team’s to win after a 24-minute seesaw battle that saw 10 total lead changes.
Juniors Tori Collins and Destinie Geiger and freshman Natalie Yoder gave Springfield a quick 7-2 lead about four minutes into the contest, but the Cougars came back to tie things up on answers by Ersig, Harlan and sophomore forward Sarah Klepzig.
After a trio of second-quarter lead changes, Southview eventually managed to enter halftime with a 25-18 advantage after Harlan, Lopez and junior guard Bailey Hejl scored 11 of the last 12 points of the half.
Refusing to let the Cougars put the game way, Springfield’s Yoder came out of the locker room to score the first four points of the third and added six more before the fourth to keep the Blue Devils within three points of Southview.
After again falling behind by five at the beginning of the final stanza, Springfield then charged back to take a 36-35 lead on shots from Collins, senior guard Chelsea Haas and freshman guard Sydney Powhida with 5:20 remaining in the game.
Southview and Springfield then swapped the lead on buckets by Hejl and Haas before the Cougars went up for good on a three-point play by Lopez at the 2:10 mark.
The Blue Devils stayed within two points of Southview as the game wound down and even attempted a go-ahead 3-pointer with 28.5 seconds left, but failed to convert.
Lopez ended up coming down with the rebound and effectively put the game away by converting a pair of free throws.
Lopez connected on 10 of her 12 shots from the charity stripe and finished the game with 14 points, 11 rebounds and three assists.
“Lexi did a nice job of holding herself together, played within herself and stepped up big when she had to,” Nottke said.
Hejl added six points and two assists, both Thomas (six rebounds) and Klepzig netted four points, Marshall chipped in two points and five boards and Ersig ended up with a point, five rebounds, two assists, two steals and a pair of blocked shots as the Cougars improved to 8-5 (4-4 in Northern Lakes League play) on the year.
“There’s not a bad team in the NLL,” Nottke said. “It’s a very strong league from top to bottom. Really, you can step out there at any point and you could get a loss.
“Give Springfield a ton of credit. They have a young team, but their kids played hard the entire time.”
Despite the loss, Yoder led all scorers with 15 points and also recorded three rebounds and two steals.
“I think you’re starting to see that the time Natalie has put in is definitely paying off,” said Springfield coach Steve Carroll. “She’s getting more confident, her teammates are getting more confident in her and I think that’s helping us a lot on offense.”
Collins (six rebounds) and Haas (four rebounds, three assists) scored eight more points apiece, Geiger (six rebounds, two assists, two steals) and Powhida (four rebounds, three steals) netted four more each and sophomore guard Asia Goodwin tacked on three Springfield points.
“I think that’s the best game Tori has played all year,” Collins said.
Along with Geiger and Goodwin, Blue Devils junior guard Taylor Nopper should also be credited for their fine defensive play against Lopez, who entered the game averaging 18.3 per contest.
“I think those girls did a very nice job against Lexi,” Carroll said. “She’s a phenomenal player and she just did a nice job of playing within her game late.”
Seniors Nina Bond and Ciara Ruiz also contributed to the Springfield cause as the Blue Devils dropped to 3-10 (0-8).
Springfield has now lost six games by 11 points or fewer.
“We just have to get them to believe that if we keep improving, eventually we’re going to be the team that is winning close games,” Carroll said.
Junior Varsity
Southview’s JV team also completed a season sweep of the Blue Devils, winning their game 48-26.
Freshman Emily Westphal led the Cougars with 12 points, juniors Rachel Loch and Maymay Ayache followed with 10 and eight more points, and sophomores Jessica Horwitz and Ke’Lana Green chipped in six and five, respectively.
Goodwin and fellow sophomore Gabby Teifke paced Springfield with six points and classmate Annisa Roberts scored four, despite the Blue Devils loss.
Freshmen
Springfield’s freshman squad earned the school’s only win of the day with a 38-35 overtime win over Southview.
Brandy Robinson led all scorers with 15 points, forwards Kaylee Finnen and Tiffany Fox added six more apiece, guard Laney Takats netted five and Hope Geiger finished with four.
Katie Gilbert paced the Cougars with nine points and Hope Bacho, Taryn Darrington and Niya King followed up with thee apiece for Southview.

Springfield Eighth-Graders Advance To NLL Championships With Wins Over McCord, Perrysburg
BY ANDREW ROWER — MIRROR SPORTS
Springfield’s eighth-grade boys basketball team advanced to the finals of the Northern Lakes League tournament last Monday with a 40-23 win over fourth-seeded Perrysburg at Fallen Timbers Middle School.
The Yellow Jackets kept things interesting for two and a half quarters, but the Blue Devils eventually wore them down with the help of some timely outside shooting by guard Aaron Thompson and forward Robert Boykin.
Thompson’s third 3-pointer of the afternoon came with just 42 seconds remaining in the third quarter and put Springfield ahead, 27-19.
Thompson added a pair of free throws before the fourth, which forward Scott Seymour began with his seventh and eighth points of the night – pushing the score to 31-19 with 5:12 left in the contest.
Perrysburg fought back to within 10 points on a drive by Logan Giesige eight seconds later, but the Blue Devils responded by netting seven straight points on a nice play from guard Trent Bond to forward Logan Gorey, a Boykin trey and a putback from Bond.
With just 2:39 left on the clock, the 17-point deficit proved too much for the Yellow Jackets to overcome.
The beginning of the game was a far cry from its end, as Springfield’s 11 first-quarter points from Gorey, Seymour and Thompson only gave the Blue Devils a one-point lead as Giesige, Andrew Bosworth and Zach Honsberger combined for 10.
Perrysburg next took a 12-11 lead on a play from Honsberger to Jake Myers, but Springfield retook its advantage just 10 seconds later on a pair of Gorey foul shots.
Although they had to work to keep their lead, the Blue Devils never trailed again.
The Yellow Jackets managed to stick within a point of Springfield until the beginning of the third quarter, when Thompson’s second triple gave the Blue Devils a bit of breathing room at 20-16.
Springfield then widened that margin to seven on additional buckets from Bond and Boykin before Thompson put the game out of reach with his final trifecta.
Mark Malinowski’s Blue Devils ended up converting 41 percent of their shots from the floor, went 6-of-6 from the line, scored 12 points on 3-pointers and eight on putbacks and committed just six turnovers on the day.
Thompson led all scorers with 11 points and also pulled down two rebounds while running the Springfield offense.
Boykin added nine points and two steals, Gorey (four rebounds, three steals) and Seymour (six rebounds) scored eight more apiece and Bond finished with four points, two assists and two boards.
Forwards Austin Rhone-house and Trevor Spangler also contributed to the Blue Devils victory, which allowed Springfield to improve to 17-0 on the season.
Honsberger (three rebounds, two steals) and Giesige (three assists) paced Perrysburg with seven points apiece. Hafner totaled five points and two steals and both Bosworth (three assists, three rebounds) and Myers ended up scoring two points.
The Blue Devils will next square off against the winner of Anthony Wayne (No. 2 seed) and Timberstone (No. 3 seed) for the league championship.
SMS 44, McCord 24
Two days earlier, Springfield began its tournament with a 44-24 win over eighth-seeded McCord.
Thompson again led all scorers in that game with 13 points and Bond and Seymour followed with 11 and 10 more.
Additionally, guard Josh Ryan and forward Steve Hill scored two points apiece and Boykin and Gorey netted two each.
Grant Peyton paced the Tartans with nine points, Matt Schaffer added six, Patrick Theiss contributed three and both Andrew Headman and Austin Sample chipped in two McCord points.