UNION CITY – Mississinawa Valley looked like a completely different team in the second half Thursday night as it erased a 13-point deficit to beat Twin Valley South 40-35.

Not much was going right for the Mississinawa Valley girls basketball team at the beginning of the game as Twin Valley South scored the night’s first 13 points while it took more than more than six minutes of game action for the Lady Hawks to finally score, with a basket from Elizabeth Livingston. Mackenzie Dirmeyer added another bucket for Mississinawa Valley in the first quarter as Twin Valley South led 15-4.

The second quarter was better for Mississinawa Valley as it outscored Twin Valley South 7-3, but the Lady Hawks still couldn’t get much going.

Early in the third quarter, a pair of 3-pointers helped Twin Valley South extend its lead back to 11 points at 24-13 but from there Mississinawa Valley turned things around.

“When we work hard, good things happen,” Mississinawa Valley coach Todd Murphy said.

Mississinawa Valley, led offensively by Hope Neargarder and Nicole Scholl, scored the game’s next seven points to cut the deficit to 24-20.

The Lady Hawks forced several turnovers and cut the deficit at one time to two points. Maddie Murphy, Brooke Collins and Neargarder all scored as Twin Valley South’s lead had dwindled to 30-27 at the end of the third quarter.

Better pressure defense, finding ways to get rebounds and being more patient all helped to turn things around for Mississinawa Valley, coach Murphy said.

“Overall just good effort in the second half,” he said.

After baskets from Murphy and Collins, Makinzi Marker scored with 5:22 left in the fourth quarter to tie the game at 32-32. Then with 4:37 left in the quarter, Elizabeth Livingston scored to give Mississinawa Valley its first lead of the night at 34-32.

From there Mississinawa Valley outscored Twin Valley South 6-3 and held on for the Cross County Conference victory.

“We didn’t give up,” coach Murphy said. “That was a lot of heart from this team tonight.”

Murphy and Neargarder led Mississinawa Valley with nine points each Thursday night. Collins scored eight points, Dirmeyer scored four, Livingston scored four, Kelsi Amspaugh scored two, Marker scored two, and Scholl scored two.

Mississinawa Valley returns to action at 1 p.m. Saturday at Troy Christian.