AMAZING PLAYS...happened on a nightly basis in the Cross County Conference and Miami East's Katie Mengos had her fair share.

Another exciting regular season of basketball came to an end in the Cross County Conference and as we settle into the second season as the tourney progresses let us take a look back at 2008-09.

The Viking girls’ team racked up their 3rd consecutive title since joining the CCC and will carry their perfect conference record into next season. As a team their average winning margin for the season was a 22 point spread. However, in conference play the average margin was a whopping 30.5 points per game.

The Lady Vikings have a lethal combination of size and ball handling skills and Katie Mengos and Ashley Rice were named to the All CCC team. But that is only scratching the surface when consider they have 5 players averaging over 6 points per game and the top scorer in Rice only averaged 12.4 PPG. Fellow seniors Rebecca Leffel and Sarah Skidmore averaged over 8 PPG and all were capable of scoring in double figures on any given night. With all of these players graduating the only question is whether there will be a big enough kink in the armor for a fellow conference team to put a notch on their belt with a W over the next few seasons. From all indications, it appears that the East program has enough bullets left in the chamber for Coach of the year Preston Elifritz to reload. If there is a lull, the Jr. High programs won both conference tournaments so expect the Miami East program to be in the mix for the next 6 years!

The rest of the CCC girls standing finished with Arcanum and Bethel tied for second at 10 – 2, Tri-County North and Ansonia tied for 4th at 8 – 4 and Tri-Village rounding out the top 5 at 7 – 5.

Arcanum and Bethel had an out standing seasons finishing the season with a record of 14 – 6.

Steve Christ’s senior laden Arcanum squad was led by All CCC Angie Cates (12.4 PPG) and Emily Schellhaas (11.4 PPG). Arcanum’s only blemish in the conference record were to East and Ansonia, but their 4 non-conference losses were to defending Division III State Champs, Versailles, a very strong Div. III Brookville and Div. IV Fort Recovery and the first game of the season to Tri-Village at their season opening tournament.

Ed Quicel’s Bethel team had a mixture of upper classmen and younger players contributing to their success. All CCC sophomore Emily Ellerbrock led the team in scoring with 13 PPG while fellow senior and two time All CCC player Brittany Lewis contributed 9.3 PPG. All six of their losses were to teams with winning records that were either ranked in the State or the Dayton Daily News Rankings. With the exception of Brookville (Milton beat Brookville in round one), teams like Milton Union, Troy Christian, Miami East, Arcanum and Anna are all alive into the second round of post season play and the girls from Bethel have as much to proud of on how they represented their school and the conference this season.

Ansonia finished with a solid 8 – 4 record in the conference race and with a quick team led by many seniors. Named to the All CCC team was junior Ashlyn Hemmelgarn (13.1 PPG) and senior Ashley McEldowney (10.9 PPG) while senior point guard and Special Mention CCC selection Staci Schmidt lead the team with 127 steals and 107 assists.

Tri-County North has finished with a winning record for the last 3 years and one of the main reasons why is the current conference Player of the Year; Rachel Heindl. Heindl finished her career with 1100 points for the Panthers. She was 2nd in the CCC with 16.8 PPG and finished the last 4 games of the regular season with a 23.5 PPG that included a TCN single game record of 40 points against Stivers. The amazing thing about the Stivers game is that she was 18/24 from the field, a perfect 2/2 from the arc in just 3 quarters of play!

TCN Coach Dan Music noted Rachel didn’t believe him at first when he told her that she was the CCC POTY. “Rachel was actually as surprised as pleased with being chosen as the POTY. Even though she said she'd much rather still be alive in the tournament, she and I both are very appreciative of this recognition from the coaches in the CCC” noted Music. Heindl also gave some props to her teammate’s, especially fellow senior and All CCC player Sarah Whitaker. “Rachel readily admits she wouldn't have been able to score 1,100 career points without her” said Music.

She was the jack of all trades as Music used her all over the floor where ever she was needed and when the Panthers needed a big play they knew where to look.

“A very athletic Yellow Springs team was hurting us on the boards, we put her inside in our zone, and she got a record 18 rebounds. She was having an off shooting game (12 pts.), but she hit the game winning FG down the stretch” said Music.

Against Preble County Rival National Trail Heindl came up big again when she scored 17 points and pulled down 5 rebound. “We’re down one in the final seconds of the game and she hit 2 free Throws in the final seconds to put us up 1 point” said Music. “Then she pulled down the clutch rebound at the other end, was fouled, and hit 2 more free throw for a 49-46 win as the Blazers final shot came up short.”

In a 75-51 win at Ansonia against a very good Tigers team against Ansonia she scored 19 of her game high 21 through 3 quarters that help TCN build a 31 point lead after 3 quarters. “Even in some tough, close losses against Bethel, Arcanum, and TV she had 18, 18, and 24 respectively to give us a chance at winning those games” stated Music.

“Her 16 pts., 6 reb., 4 assists, and 3 steals a game, are just part of why I considered her so valuable to our team” continued the TCN first year head coach. “She was a team leader in her work ethic in practice, and was very well liked because of her modesty, and unselfishness, as I felt she could have scored much more, and at times I felt she was too unselfish, when I needed her to look to score more than she did” concluded Music.

Tri-Village finished the season 7-5 in the CCC and 6’0” freshman Kayla Linkous splashed into the conference the first weekend with 25 and 32 points at the Bill Burkett Tournament to let everyone know that a new big occupied the paint for the Patriots. Linkous led the league in scoring averaging 21.6 PPG and averaged 12.1 rebounds per game for the Pats. Kaila Burn busted 47 3 pointers for the Patriots this season while Hillarie French and Chelsey Royer combined for 140 assists.

Franklin Monroe came on strong at the end of the season as Head Coach Ned Gray’s young squad (no seniors) came up with some big wins down the stretch and continue to play in the post season after beating Tri-Village and Twin Valley South in the Brookville Division IV sectional.

National Trail had a very competitive season finishing 5-7 in the CCC and 10 – 10 overall. Senior Alyssa Joyce averaged 12.5 PPG, 13.8 rebounds per game and set new season and career rebound records this year.

Covington struggled with season ending injuries to Renee Otte and Shelby Hoblit, which forced a youth movement for the Lady Buccs. The result was an uncharacteristic 3-17 record for the Lady Buccs with Chris Besecker at the helm. But, the improvement over the course of the season only bodes well for Covington next year as Alyssa Angle and Shelby Hoblit will return as senior leaders with the majority of the roster returning as well.

The Katie Stewart era is over at Newton as she finished her career with over 1000 career points. The four year starter and All CCC selection the last two years, Stewart finished her final season averaging 13 points per game.

The South Panthers started the season with a flurry but couldn’t maintain the momentum into the second half of the season. The good news for South is their leading scorer, All CCC player Adelle Gates and Honorable Mention selection Tayler Creech are sophomores.

Bradford started the season with low numbers and younger classmen but gained a year of experience to apply to next year’s campaign. Their lone win came against Metro Buckeye opponent Emmanuel Christian.