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By Michael Cooper, Staff Writer 11:18 PM Tuesday, February 7, 2012

SPRINGFIELD — After starting the season 2-7, the Emmanuel Christian High School girls basketball team has won seven of its last 10 games.

“Our girls are believing in their coaches, in their system and most importantly, believing in each other,” said Lions first-year coach Terry Toliver said. “We’ve only got seven (varsity girls) and they’re really leaning on each other.”

The Lions (9-10, 4-7 Metro Buckeye Conference) are also doing it with defense. In the last 10 games, the Lions have given up an average of 32.0 points.

They’re led by senior Megan Ball, who played her first three years at Greenon. She’s averaging 13.2 points, 7.9 rebounds, 5.4 steals and 4.6 assists. Ball has had a school-record three triple-doubles this season.

“She’s really coming into her own,” Toliver said. “For us, she needs to score the ball, get after it defensively and rebound.”

Toliver also said he’s never seen someone eat as much popcorn as Ball.

“That’s her nickname,” Toliver said, “ ‘Popcorn.’ ”

The Lions have also seen freshman Hannah Decker (11.4 points, 4.4 steals) and senior Breanna Coffman (11.4 rebounds) emerge as playmakers this season.

With one more victory, the Lions will get to 10 wins for the first time in program history.

“I’ve never been around a group of kids who work so hard,” Toliver said. “We don’t have the most talent, but as the saying goes, ‘When talent fails to prepare, talent will lose.’ The girls never miss practice, they never make excuses and they work hard.”

Toliver previously coached at London and as an assistant at Kenton Ridge before taking over the program last summer. He sees a bright future at Emmanuel, whose seventh- and eighth-grade teams have just three losses combined. It’s the first time they’ve ever fielded two teams at the middle-school level.

“I’m very excited to be at Emmanuel,” Toliver said. “I think I’ve finally found a place where I can call home, and I’ll be there for awhile.”

Title scenarios: Greenon (13-2), Graham (9-9) and Urbana (12-6) can all earn a share of the Central Buckeye Conference Mad River Division league title with victories Saturday. They’re all tied atop the Mad River Division with 7-2 records.

Urbana hosts Indian Lake, Greenon hosts Ben Logan and Graham travels to Northwestern.

Graham won the title outright last year and shared the title with Indian Lake in 2010. Greenon hasn’t won a league title since 1984 and Urbana hasn’t won the Mad River Division since 2007.

State poll: Undefeated Triad is second with three first-place votes in the latest Associated Press girls hoops poll, released Tuesday. The Cardinals ranked third last week.

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