JERRY CITY — It has been quite an inconsistent season for Elmwood’s girls basketball team.
Tuesday night’s Northern Buckeye Conference matchup with Genoa epitomized the Royals’ year.
Elmwood played well in spurts, but never well enough to lead. It was left in a battle for the entire
night.
The uphill battle turned out to be too much as mistakes down the stretch cost the Royals a chance to
knock off the conference’s top team, and Genoa escaped with a 59-52 win.
Elmwood (5-5 overall, 3-2 NBC) cut a once 13-point deficit to five points with 2:32 to play. But missed
layups in the final minutes never allowed the Royals to take advantage, even after cutting the lead to
56-52 with 21.9 seconds left.
“You can’t do that. You can’t have those mistakes when you’re fighting the whole time trying to get back
into the game,” Elmwood coach Doug Reynolds said.
“We did not get enough pressure on (Genoa) at the three-minute mark,” he said. “We were not out there
tight enough on them. We were just acting like we were going through the motions.”
Genoa (9-2, 5-0 NBC) was led by Haley Pickard’s 18 points. Emily Edwards added 16.
Elmwood failed to get anybody into double digits. Five different Royals had eight points, including
freshman Mattison Hilliard, who helped spark Elmwood late in the second quarter.
Hilliard was one of three freshman — along with Allison Arnold and Zoe Shank — to contribute extensive
minutes throughout the final three quarters. The three combined for 12 points.
“They came in and gave us a lift,” Reynolds said. “That’s what we told them, if you do the job, you’re
going to make everybody pick it up.”
Seniors Ashley Veryser and Samantha Ervin combined for 16 points, but just 13 rebounds.
“They’re not rebounding the ball well enough yet,” Reynolds said of his team collectively. “And the
bottom line is they’re not boxing out. We work on it every day. That’s why you’re seeing the younger
ones playing. They’re giving us more energy.”
Elmwood trailed 12-8 after the first quarter but allowed the Comets to extend the lead to 33-23 at the
half.
The Royals cut the lead to 13-10 early in the second before an 8-0 Genoa run made it 21-10. Pickard
scored six of the Comets’ eight points in the spurt, twice off steals for easy layups.
“We didn’t do a bad job. But in a tight game like this, you can’t turn it over at all,” said Reynolds,
whose team committed 23 turnovers.
“We’re going to go to win,” he said. “We’ve got to win with who wants to. You’ve got to have some heart
and say ‘I want to do this.’ If not, we’ve got kids that want to do it.”
Defending was one of Reynolds’ primary concerns, not only on this night, but for the season. Elmwood is
allowing 47.3 points per game.
“We need to be more intense on defense,” he said. “… We have the kids that can defend. But do they have
the heart to play the way they need to? And the only one that can answer that is each individual kid.”

Elmwood won the junior varsity game 42-22. Hilliard led the Royals with 14 points and Savannah Harvey
added 10.
GENOA 59, ELMWOOD 52
GENOA
Gose, 1-2—4; Smith, 0-0—0; Gerke, 0-3-0—9; Edwards, 6-4—16; Dazley, 1-0—2; Pickard, 7-4—18; Harder,
3-4—10; Shessler, 0-0—0. TOTALS: 18-3-14—59.
ELMWOOD
Bradford, 0-0—0; Sears, 4-0—8; Kynard, 1-6—8; Veryser, 3-2—8; R. Harvey, 0-2-1—7; George, 0-1—1; Marsh,
0-0—0; Ervin, 4-0—8; Arnold, 1-0—2; Shank, 1-0—2; Hilliard, 4-0—8. TOTALS: 18-2-10—52.
GENOA 12 21 15 11 —59
ELMWOOD 8 15 12 17 —52
Junior varsity: Elmwood, 42-22.