The Van Buren County girls basketball team used a dominant defensive performance to defeat Holy Trinity Catholic 42-23 on Tuesday, December 16th. The Warriors improved to 5-2 on the season while the Crusaders fell to 0-5.
Game Recap
Holy Trinity Catholic took a 9-8 lead after the first quarter, erasing an early 8-3 Van Buren County advantage with six straight points to close the period. However, the Warriors’ defense locked in from that point forward.
Van Buren County held the Crusaders to just two points in the entire second quarter, building an 18-11 halftime lead. The Warriors extended their advantage to 32-17 after three quarters and cruised to the 19-point victory.
Van Buren County Stats
Sophia Jirak led the Warriors with 14 points, connecting on four three-pointers. Marlee Mertens added 13 points, including three three-pointers. Daphny Wells contributed eight points, Adalyn Snowgren scored five points, and Elli Daugherty chipped in two points.
As a team, Van Buren County committed 13 turnovers, grabbed 30 rebounds, and shot 3-of-6 from the free-throw line.
Holy Trinity Catholic was led by Adalyn Kruse with 12 points. The Crusaders committed 22 turnovers, pulled down 29 rebounds, and shot 3-of-7 from the charity stripe.
All statistics were provided by Shan Moquin during the broadcast.
Player Perspectives
Sophia Jirak discussed the three-point shooting from Marlee Mertens and herself that sparked the Warriors’ offense.
“It was nice for both of us to be on, and Marlee got two right off the bat, which got us fired up, and then I had a few at the end which kept us going and gave us that reach,” Jirak said.
Looking ahead to the team’s next game against Danville, Jirak outlined the challenge.
“They have a good point guard who’s fast, and then with a combination of a fast point guard and then a lanky post player, it’ll be harder to defend that, but nothing we can’t do,” Jirak said.
Mertens highlighted the impact of freshman Adalyn Snowgren on the team’s ball-handling.
“Adalyn definitely helps us a lot. She’s, I would say, the best dribbler on the team, and we’re not too good at that all around, but she definitely helps us get out of our press a lot. She knows what she’s doing, she knows when to kick it, and when to just go ahead and take it up to the basket,” Mertens said.
Jirak also praised the contributions of the team’s bench players, particularly freshmen Adalyn Snowgren and Aubrey Loeffler.
“In addition to Adalyn, Aubrey Loeffler has stepped up a lot, another freshman who has stepped up a lot when Adalyn gets into foul trouble. Aubrey steps up and does what she needs to do,” Jirak said. “They help us out a lot. It’s definitely good to get a break in the game. They help, they come in, they might not score, but they definitely keep the ball in hand.”
Mertens continued to credit the team’s defensive intensity for the victory.
“We definitely got better at defense towards the end of the game. I think we just wanted it more, it was more aggressive towards the end, but we were up by a lot. Our defense definitely came back more than the first half of the game,” Mertens said.
Looking Ahead
The Warriors will now prepare to travel northeast for more conference play in Danville on Friday, December 19th for the last game of 2025 before the winter break.
All photography courtesy of Jaime Moquin.
