Meridian Girls Stay Hot in Balanced Effort Over Skyline Meridian Boys Go 4-1 On the Road, Begin

by Ryan McCafferty

Meridian’s girls’ basketball team played host to Skyline High School on Tuesday night, looking to stay unbeaten at home as well as in conference play. Maureen Tremblay got things off to a fast start with two early buckets, and then Peyton Jones, who returned to the starting lineup, hit a three to give the Mustangs a 7-0 lead. The opening run would increase to nine before Skyline finally got on the board with a free throw, and the home team led 11-2 after the first quarter. Skyline scored the first four points of the second period, but then a 10-0 Meridian run gave the Mustangs a 15 point lead, and they would hold a 21-8 advantage at the end of the half.

Meridian continued to dominate after the break, scoring nine of the first twelve points of the third quarter to gain their largest lead of the night at 30-11. They led 34-16 heading into the fourth, though Skyline wouldn’t go down without a fight, and it wasn’t until the last few minutes that head coach Chris Carrico finally felt safe pulling his starters. The final score was 50-24 in favor of the Mustangs, who moved to 15-1 on the year and 4-0 in conference play with a road game at William Monroe awaiting them on Friday.

It was a balanced attack for the winning team, with eight players scoring but none with more than Elizabeth Creed’s 11. Ellie Friesen also got into double figures with ten, while fellow starters Jones, Tremblay, and Nora Shifft all had at least six.

Homestand on Friday

by Ryan McCafferty

Meridian’s boys’ basketball team played five consecutive road games to begin league play in the Northwestern District, and won four of them in what was overall a successful trip. It began with a 66-25 win over Trinity Christian on January 10th, which was followed by an equally dominant 83-46 victory over Warren County on the 13th as Will Davis made six three-pointers and Wyatt Trundle added 17 points.

The Mustangs then added wins over Manassas Park on the 17th (67-32) and Brentsville on the 20th (72-53), with Trundle scoring 25 against Brentsville while the Manassas Park game was a balanced scoring attack with no one tallying more than Grant Greiner’s 12.

However, things ended on a low note as Meridian was dominated 69-34 by Skyline on the 24th. Skyline is the team to beat in the conference, per assistant coach Rusty Payne, and the Mustangs were simply outmatched. They’ll have a great chance to get back on track this Friday, though, as they’ll play host to William Monroe for the first of what will now be five consecutive home games between now and February 10th. The other four matchups during the homestand will be rematches against Warren County, Manassas Park, Brentsville, and Skyline.