TRENTON — It was simply time. That’s how Amanda Hobbs felt Wednesday night.
The Edgewood High School senior guard broke into a smile after the Cougars crushed visiting Northwest 66-24, clinching the first winning season for the EHS girls basketball program since the 2000-01 squad went 11-10.
“Going out as a senior, it feels great,” Hobbs said. “I’ve had enough losing. We’re very skilled this year. We get after it in practice. We make each other better.”
Hobbs scored 19 points, Haley Rutherford had 12 and Jessica Murphy added 10 for Edgewood, which improved to 11-8 overall and 6-7 in the Fort Ancient Valley Conference West Division.
Cougars coach Greg Brown, in his eighth season at the helm, has only two seniors (Hobbs and Kelsey Swartz). He sees a bright future for the program and said getting that elusive winning record is an important start.
“You can talk and talk and talk about changing, but until you do, you’re just spinning in the mud,” Brown said. “A winning record is good for these girls. They need to embrace that a little bit.”
He envisioned even more wins for his team this year, but injuries have been a factor.
“That’s part of basketball,” Brown said. “Right now, we just want to take care of ourselves mentally and get some momentum going into the tournament. Then we’ll see how things fall.”
Edgewood snapped a three-game losing streak by hammering the Knights for the second time this year. It was 2-2 in the first three minutes — the Cougars scored the next 26 points.
“The focus was us, not Northwest,” Brown said. “We felt like we had issues offensively and defensively the last three games, and we really needed to step up our defensive intensity. We kind of nitpicked tonight. We’ve got to get better.”
Northwest (1-18, 0-13) had 29 turnovers and made 6-of-21 free throws. Nefertiti Robinson scored a team-high 11 points.
Knights coach Brett Van Gaasbeek said he was displeased enough with the entire evening to decline comment, then said he would make one statement.
“Our kids, I’m proud of,” Van Gaasbeek said. “They played with class. They played with dignity. They finished the game.”
Hobbs paced Edgewood with eight rebounds, and Brittany Marts, Kasey McCall and Swartz added seven boards apiece. Marts and Maura Hackney both scored eight points.
The Cougars will close the regular season at home against Norwood on Saturday afternoon, then begin Division I sectional play Tuesday night against Miamisburg at Lebanon.
“We expected to win the league, but things happen,” Hobbs said. “We haven’t won a tournament game in a long time. I think teams better watch out for us.”