Triad’s Frani LeVan, left, attempts a shot while drawing a foul during an Ohio Heritage Conference basketball game against Northeastern on Thursday.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Sam Dillon)
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The Lady Cardinals of Triad picked up another Ohio Heritage Conference win on Thursday with a 58-36 triumph over Northeastern.
The victory came on the backs of the LeVan twins, Frani and Cati, who combined for 41 of the Lady Card’s points.
Head coach Jeff Merklin credites Frani LeVan for helping lead Triad to the win.
“I notice when Frani is scoring, our whole offense seems to go a little better,” he said. “That is kind of key, because she has so much responsibility running the offense that you hate to ask her to score so much.
“However, it seems to go better when she scores.”
The Lady Cardinals came out firing shots with Frani LeVan leading the charge with seven points from the field.
Sister Cati buried a trey from beyond the arc and the Cardinals’ post Makenzie Cauley picked up a bucket down low to help Triad take a 15-10 lead at the end of the opening stanza.
Triad’s shooting prowess continued during the second quarter.
Frani LeVan continued her solid game with a couple of three-point buckets and a breakaway layup to give her eight points in the quarter.
Cauley put up six points with some solid shooting from the line. However, she found herself in some foul trouble right before the half due to the Lady Cardinal’ stout defense.
Merklin said the fouls are something his team has to work on due to its lack of depth.
“If there is one thing that we need to improve on is discretion on defense,” he said. “We play very hard on defense, we play good defense and sometimes we get a little reachy and hacky.
“We can’t have that,” he said. “We need everybody who is in the rotation because it is limited.”
The Lady Cardinals opened with a 34-19 lead during the third quarter.
However, due to a limited rotation, they had no true post player to replace Cauley. This allowed the Jets to work the ball in low and put some easy points on the board.
“We have to have everyone available,” Merklin said. “You saw what happens when our post goes out. We have no size to speak of and they (the Jets) were able to just dump it in.”
Despite the Lady Jets picking up 11 points during the quarter, Triad was able to replace Cauley with Bailey Plank.
Plank found the bottom of the basket twice for four points, as triad took a 48-30 margin into the fourth period.
The Lady Cardinals just needed to hang on to their lead throughout the final set.
They were able to so as Cauley scored five points, while Frani LeVan added three.
Merklin said it was nice to see diverse scoring from his team.
“I was really pleased with Makenzie Cauley,” he said. “We are really trying to think more offense for her.
“We work with her individually in practice to try to get her thinking to score,” he said. “We can’t have the LeVan’s scoring all of our points… we have to have some balance.”
With the win, Triad improved to 4-3 on the season and Merklin is happy with his small team’s improvement and current standings in the OHC.
“I would like to be a game or two better, but where we are is pretty good,” he said. “I’m very pleased with the girls’ progress from the first scrimmage to now. So that is going to be the key, to keep improving.”
Triad will return to the court Saturday at Greenview.
Triad
F. LeVan 10-2-27, C. LeVan 5-2-14, Makenzie 5-3-13, Plank 2-0-4. Totals 22-7-58.
Three-point goals: F. LeVan 5, C. LeVan 2.
Northeastern
Stewart 6-5-17, Baker 1-3-5, Dawson 1-1-4, Davis 2-0-4, Dietrich 1-0-2, Pallicoat 1-0-2, Baneck 0-1-1, Richards 0-1-1. Totals 12-11-36.
Three-point goal: Dawson 1.