By Garth Shanklin,
Sports Editor –
Goshen junior Paige Garr wasted no time making history against Batavia on Thursday, Jan. 25.
Garr entered the contest needing just seven points to become the third player in Lady Warriors history to score 1,000 points in her career.
She got all seven, and then some, in the first two minutes of the game.
Garr dominated the first half, scoring 20 points en route to a 58-22 Goshen victory over the Lady Bulldogs.
“They struggled to score, but we played pretty well tonight,” Goshen head coach Mark Short said. “We had just come off a tough one where we didn’t play well, so I thought this was a good win for us. We’re heading into a real tough stretch.”
Garr was the highlight of the night, quickly hitting a pair of two-point shots before draining a three from the top of the key to hit 1,000. She added 13 more points in the first half, then turned from a scorer into a distributor in the second half. She finished the game with 13 rebounds and a team-high five assists, something that wasn’t lost on Short.
“She had 20 in the first half and never scored in the second half,” Short said. “That proves that she’s not just a scorer. She’s a well-rounded player and probably the person that was worried least about her 1,000th point was her.”
While she may not have been worried about scoring her 1,000th point, Garr was certainly quick to credit her teammates for helping her get to where she is today.
“It feels good,” Garr said. “It means a lot, but I also have to give a lot to my teammates. Without them, I wouldn’t have scored all these points. I have to give a lot of credit to them, too.”
Garr accomplished her feat on the night where Goshen honored their youth basketball program, with dozens of basketball players at lower grade levels in attendance.
“We had a lot of the youth here, and our youth program is really strong,” Short said. “It’s just a real good night for the kids to come here and see that.”
In addition to Garr’s performance, Sami Huhn added 14 points and six boards. Miranda Meyer chipped in five and five, and Kaitlin Pfau added four points and five boards.
The Lady Warriors returned to the court on Monday, Jan. 29 with a visit to Clinton-Massie. Garr again dominated, tallying 21 points and 23 rebounds in a 60-40 Goshen victory that kept the Lady Warriors alive in the race for the Southern Buckeye Athletic and Academic Conference American Division title.
Goshen next travels to Wilmington on Thursday, Feb. 1 to take on the Lady Cane, who are in first place in the SBAAC American with an 8-0 mark. Short said the Lady Warriors have to finish this season strong.
“Wilmington’s really good, the class of the conference,” Short said. “We’re hoping to play better than we did last time. Right now we’re tied for second since we got beat by Western Brown last week. We’re trying to get a roll here to finish strong in the league.”