Saturday, December 28, 2002
Darcy Quinlan and Kristina Ferenac supplied a 1-2 scoring punch for the Tigers in a 63-39 win.
By GREG GULAS
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
BROOKFIELD -- The Howland High girls basketball team is playing like a well-oiled machine.
Darcy Quinlan scored 24 points and Kristina Ferenac added 17 Friday as the Tigers rolled over the Sharon Tigers, 63-39, at the Ninth annual Warrior Memorial Holiday Tournament at the Brookfield High Gymnasium.
Howland will defend its tourney crown against Farrell tonight at 7:30.
"The score was not a surprise to us in that we knew Sharon returned just two starters from a season ago," Howland coach John Diehl said.
"The third quarter wasn't a very good quarter for us in that they shifted into a zone," Diehl said. "And since there were some scouts in the stands watching us, combined with the lead that we had at the time, we didn't exactly break everything out in that particular situation."
Howland is 8-0
Howland improved to 8-0 while Sharon fell to 6-5, its four-game winning streak falling by the wayside.
Morgan Bradley hit a jumper 34 seconds into the game for an early 2-0 Sharon lead, the only advantage the Pennsylvania Tigers would enjoy.
Meredith Schneider knotted the score 41 seconds later. The Tigers took the lead for good when Quinlan hit her first basket at the 6:17 mark of the opening quarter.
Quinlan added six more points in the period as the Tigers built a 20-8 lead. In the period, they held Sharon to one bucket during the final 4:10 of action.
Sharon lacks depth
"We're missing one key player, someone who can help spell our starters throughout the game," Sharon coach Maureen O'Brian said. "Howland is a great team, no question about it.
"While we were on target from three-point range our last time out, we hit just two tonight and that really hurt us," O'Brian said. "The key for us, however, was that we did not quit."
A Ferenac layup at the 4:52 mark of the second period gave Howland a 27-12 lead. Howland outscored Sharon 12-5 to take a 39-17 lead into the locker room at intermission.
The lone bright spot for Sharon was the play of Nicole Valentino who scored 22 points.
Valentino scored all nine of her team's points in the second period and 20 of her squad's final 31 points.
Big lead
Howland increased their lead to 47-25 after three quarters of play.
After Schneider and Quinlan scored five points in the final period, Howland outscored Sharon 16-14 in the final frame.
Howland held Sharon scoreless for 4:58 seconds in the fourth quarter to seal the victory.
Howland canned 24 of 58 field goal attempts and made 15 of 21 charity tosses.
Sharon suffered through a dismal night from the field, hitting just 14-60. They made only two of 16 attempts from beyond the arc and nine of 13 from the free-throw line.
Sharon held a 37-33 rebound margin, hauling in 14 offensive caroms.
Farrell 66, Brookfield 60
Amber Chambers led the Steelers with 17 points. Kelly Davis netted 14, Maria Ross 11 and Ashley Pendelton 10.
For Brookfield (5-4), Holly DeMay scored 11 points and Ashley Gramsky 10.