COCOLAMUS - Put the Juniata girls' scoring potential with the Midd-West girls inexperience on the basketball court, and what you get it a Juniata win - a big Juniata win.
Thursday night, Juniata put up a 55-26 win over Midd-West at the Juniata County Christmas Tournament, and this win was the product of the Indians hitting shots from just about anywhere on the floor.
In the first quarter, Juniata went on an 8-2 run over the Mustangs - a combined effort of one 3-pointer apiece from Janelle Swartz and Victoria Varner, and a 2-pointer from Maddie Zendt - and that was pretty much the story of how the rest of the game would go.
Juniata scored hard and often, allowing the Mustangs to reach double digits only in their 14-point, third-quarter effort, resulting in a lopsided win in the Indians' favor.
Many of Juniata's points came from Varner, who's 21game-high points - 12 of which were from behind the arc - were more than either team managed to score in a single quarter. Add to this Joelle Winey's work in the paint - Winey had 16 points for her effort - and the Indians were just too much for Midd-West's inexperienced squad to handle.
"I've known from the beginning of the season that we have a lot of scorers out there. It's just, any of them can score on any given day, and tonight I thought they really did a good job of finding Joelle inside. They made great passes inside, and she finished," Juniata coach Meghan Geedey said.
Winey's eight total field goals was a game high, and it seemed no matter what the Mustangs did, they couldn't find a way to stop Winey and her fellow Indians from scoring.
"They got inside, they got outside and pretty much we tried everything with them," Midd-West coach Dave Fadale said, explaining that Juniata cracked both his team's zone and man defenses.
Despite Midd-West's youth - the Mustang roster is heavy with underclassmen - it was able to put together a strong third quarter, tying Juniata with their 14 points. Nine of those belonged to Mikayla Beiler, who finished the game with a team-high 10 points.
In the other quarters, although Juniata had no less than 11 points per quarter, Midd-West managed to score a total of 12 points in the first, second and fourth quarters combined.
Juniata (6-1) faces cross-county rival East Juniata in today's championship round of the tournament at 7 p.m. Midd-West (1-4) faces Belleville Mennonite at 4 p.m today in the consolation game.
