Layla Hale received the game MVP award after West Clermont’s win over Mount Healthy Dec. 28 at Cintas Center. She scored 12 points and had five rebounds. Photo by Dick Maloney.
West Clermont coach Jeff Click shows his frustration during the first half of the Wolves’ 47-29 win over Mount Healthy at Cintas Center.
They were playing on the same court, sitting on the same bench, wearing the same uniforms, on almost exactly the same date, with the same result. Yet this was a different West Clermont High School girls’ basketball team that defeated Mount Healthy 47-29 Dec. 28, 2023, in the first game of the Holiday Hardwood Classic at Cintas Center.
Just over a year ago, Dec. 27, 2022, the Wolves beat Seton 48-33 at Cintas to raise their record to 10-0, on the way to a 22-0 regular season. The win over Mount Healthy was West Clermont’s ninth in 11 games – exactly one-half of the schedule complete. While the margin indicated a fairly easy victory, the details belied that, according to West Clermont coach Jeff Click, who kept his team in the locker room long after Mount Healthy had boarded the bus.
The message: We have to be better.
Turnovers were perhaps the biggest concern – 20 (the Wolves forced 26), but Click also pointed to a slow start (West Clermont led 9-5 after the first quarter) and a cruise control finish, during which the Owls cut the lead to nine points.
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