MADISON—West Geauga’s inside game paved the way for a 59-51 nonconference win at Madison on Friday afternoon.
Alexa Hocevar scored a game-high 18 points and pulled down 15 rebounds for the Wolverines and Tara Gall and Maggie Furst also scored in double figures with 14 and 13 points, respectively, but it was the work the Wolverines did inside that keyed the win.
“They really just they cleaned up inside,” said West Geauga coach Brandon Stewart. “Meghan (Zebrowski) and Tara were down there just banging inside a lot. They were able to finish inside and I don’t know how many offensive rebounds they had, but they’re able to go back up finish strong. They made some big free throws there towards the end as well, too. That was huge out of them on the inside.”
West Geauga outrebounded Madison, 39-23.
The Wolverines bounced back from a 57-53 season-opening loss at Mentor on Tuesday by matching their intensity but also cleaning up on some of their mistakes from that first game.
After sending Mentor to the free throw line 39 times, the Wolverines allowed just six Madison free throw attempts on Friday.
“We put Mentor on the line 39 times the other night,” Stewart said. “I don’t know what the final stats were on that today but we really were able to limit some of those free throws and we matched our aggressiveness, which was nice to see for this group.”
West Geauga led by as many as 13 points in the fourth quarter then had to hold off the Blue Streaks down the stretch as they made one final run.
“It was really a good defensive effort,” Stewart said. “That was nice to see, especially after Tuesday.”
