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By Michael Cooper, Staff Writer 12:02 AM Wednesday, February 1, 2012

CEDARVILLE — One of the most improved girls basketball teams in the area this season is Cedarville.

The Indians have won five or their last eight games, including an overtime victory over Catholic Central on Jan. 26.

“It’s been a fun year,” Grant said. “I’ve enjoyed seeing them grow and reach their potential. We haven’t played our best game yet and hopefully we will before the end of the season.”

At 8-9 and 3-8 in the Ohio Heritage Conference, the Indians are having their best season since 2007 when they went 12-10. The Indians’ three OHC victories are more than the previous three seasons combined.

“Our league is pretty good this year,” Grant said. “I wasn’t sure how good we could be. I didn’t think at this point in the season we’d have eight wins. We beat the teams we should’ve and challenged some other teams. I hope we’re hitting our stride and go into the tournament with some confidence.”

They lost to Greeneview by 11 points on Jan. 24, but pulled to within four points late in the game.

“As a team, we’re gaining more confidence,” Grant said. “That gave us some confidence that we could play with some of the better teams.”

Due to injuries, the Indians are down to 11 players for the varsity and junior varsity programs combined. In the game against Greeneview, they played all five starters the entire 36 minutes.

“That’s why we try to condition as hard as we do in practice,” Grant said.

Emily Sheridan is averaging 14.5 points and 6.5 rebounds per game for the Indians. Emily Aviles is averaging 11.1 ppg, and is shooting a high percentage from behind the 3-point (36.5 percent) and free throw (77.8) lines. They Indians face rival Southeastern on Saturday.

Mad River scenarios: Greenon’s victory over Urbana on Monday sets up a key Central Buckeye Conference Mad River Division showdown on Saturday.

Graham (9-7, 7-1 CBC Mad River) hosts Urbana (10-6, 6-2) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. With a victory, Graham would need a win in its season finale against Northwestern to win its third straight division title.

An Urbana victory may allow for a three-way tie in the division. The Hillclimbers would also need a win over Indian Lake to earn a share of the title, while Greenon (12-4, 6-2 CBC Mad River) needs wins over Northwestern and Benjamin Logan to earn a share of its first title since 1984.

State poll: Triad was ranked third in the latest D-IV poll this week, earning two first-place votes.

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