Alyssa Angle spots up for two of her 10 points on the night.

2007-08 BASKETBALL LINKS MEET THE 07-08 LADY BUCCS MEET THE 07-08 BUCCANEERS MEET THE 07-08 CHEERLEADERS 5TH & 6TH GRADE INTRAMURALS

2007-08 SCHEDULE 11/16/07 11/17/07 11/20/07 11/24/07 11/29/07 12/01/07 12/06/07 12/08/07 12/13/07 12/20/07 12/22/07 12/27/07 12/29/07 01/03/08 01/05/08 01/10/08 01/17/08 01/19/08 01/24/08 01/31/08 ------------- 02/11/08 02/14/08 02/16/08 @ Houston Fairlawn @ Newton @ Versailles Tri-Village Lehman @ Ansonia Bethel @Russia @ Miami East @ Milton Union National Trail @ New Bremen Tri-County North @ Twin Valley South @ Arcanum Bradford Jackson Center @ Franklin Monroe Mississinawa Valley SECTIONALS Arcanum Bethel Tri-Village 27-51 24-50 37-19 34-59 26-32 26-74 18-25 36-41 35-46 27-49 23-47 45-24 19-45 44-34 35-39 38-28 52-40 21-25 25-63 33-25 -------- 43-34 44-33 26-34 2007-08 CCC STANDINGS Team CCC ALL Miami East 11-0 17-0 Franklin Monroe 10-1 13-4 Tri-Village 8-3 12-5 Twin Valley South 8-4 12-7 Bethel 7-4 8-9 Arcanum 6-5 8-10 Ansonia 6-5 7-11 Tri-County North 6-5 8-8 Covington 6-6 6-14 Mississinawa Valley 2-9 3-15 National Trail 2-9 4-14 Newton 1-10 3-15 Bradford 1-10 2-15

December 27, 2007 – COVINGTON
The success of a young Covington girls basketball team is not measured in wins and losses, but improvement from game to game.

In spite of capturing their second win of the season with a 45-24 victory over National Trail, Covington coach Chris Besecker wasn't jumping up and down for joy. Instead, he was focused on taking the next step in correcting mental mistakes made on the floor.

"A win is a win, but this wasn't our best game," said Besecker. "We have some bad habits we've been working on, but the improvement hasn't come as fast as I'd like."

Covington controlled the contest throughout, but gave National Trail too many second and third opportunities at the basket.

"We don't box out very well right now," Besecker explained. "We can't expect to win on a consistent basis if we don't do the little things right."

What did please Besecker was the fact that he had more than one offensive weapon tonight, although leading scorer Renee Otte did have a game-high 19 points.

"It was good to see Alyssa (Angle) come out and score early on and Kayla (Fissel) hit some big shots," Besecker praised. "Alyssa had seven in the first period and both girls had a couple of three-pointers."

Angle finished with ten, while Fissel had six on the evening.

"They are capable of hitting those shots when they get their shoulders square to the basket," Besecker continued. "Hopefully this will give them some confidence in themselves that they are capable of hitting big shots like that."

Covington's defense was stellar in the early going as it held National Trail scoreless for the first 4:23 of the game.

By then the Lady Buccs built a 6-0 lead and increased the margin to 14-4 by the end of the stanza.

"We played a man defense, something we haven't done much this year," Besecker explained. "It forced us to move our feet, which is something we've struggled with playing zone."

The Lady Buccs increased their lead to 25-11 at the half, but National Trail got some momentum with a pair of baskets to close out the half.

Still, Covington outscored the Lady Blazers 11-6 in the third and held a 38-22 lead with under 2:00 to play.

"After the first quarter I thought the game was played pretty evenly until late in the game when they (National Trail) emptied the bench," Besecker said. "I would have liked to empty my bench, but we couldn't because of depth. We can't afford to give up a quarter for a minute or two, so we had to keep our girls on the floor."

The result was a 6-2 Covington run to end the contest.

Covington had five players reach the scoring column, with Otte leading the way with 19.

"Renee has become more confident and aggressive offensively," described Besecker. "It started against Miami East when they played us man-to-man and Renee just beat them off the dribble. She's become our primary offensive weapon, but hopefully we have more girls step up as well down the stretch."

Covington improves to 2-10 on the season and 2-4 in the Cross County Conference.

The Lady Buccs are back in action on Saturday at New Bremen.

Scoring by Quarters:
National Trail .......4......11......17......24
Covington ...........14.....25......36......45

National Trail Scoring:
Alyssa Joyce - 7
Lori Deaton - 6
Stacy Davis - 3
Sarah Little - 3
Kayla Lee - 2
Courtney Flory - 2
Amanda Grimes - 1

Covington Scoring:
Renee Otte - 19
Alyssa Angle - 10
Shelby Hoblit - 8
Kayla Fissel - 6
Katie Dickey - 2

Three-point Scoring:
National Trail: Stacey Davis (1)
Covington: Kayla Fissel (2), Alyssa Angle (2)