BOARDMAN GIRLS Back-to-back wins was not easy task

The Spartans capped two nights of action successfully.
By CHUCK HOUSTEAU
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
BOARDMAN -- The Boardman Spartans were a tired basketball team.
The Spartans were playing back-to-back games for the first time ever and Boardman coach Ron Moschella was concerned about how his team would handle the challenge.
The Spartans were easily up to the task.
Led by junior Amber Bland's 17 points and 11 rebounds, Boardman (11-0) turned back a good Massillon Jackson team 57-34 Friday night at Boardman.
"After playing a very hard game against Ursuline [Thursday], I was worried if we would have our legs or not tonight," Moschella said. "We came out fine and everyone was jumping to the ball.
By design
"We scheduled this game purposely to help us prepare for the post-season possibility of playing on consecutive nights," Moschella said. "I was really proud how the girls responded."
The Spartans did seem to tire somewhat in the second half but the game was easily in hand by them.
Boardman jumped on the Polar Bears (5-6) of the Federal League quickly.
After trailing briefly at 6-4 early in the first quarter, Boardman outscored Jackson 25-3 to open up a 29-9 lead with 1:50 remaining in the first half.
Boardman limited the Polar Bears to just one point in the second period and at halftime the Spartans were comfortably in control 31-10.
Bland scored 10 of her points in the first two periods to help ignite the Boardman rally.
"We wanted to prove to ourselves that we were able to be strong tonight after playing in a tough game last night," Bland said. "We knew that we were physically ready for this game but we proved that we are mentally tough as well.
"Jackson is a good team so it was important for us to get off to a good start and we did that."
Defense outstanding
Defensively, the Spartans were outstanding all night long.
"I didn't know if we would have the energy to play tough defense all night," Moschella said. "But we played good team ball and everyone contributed."
Boardman's defense limited Jackson to just 11 field goals in 49 attempts (23 percent) and one of those goals was made inadvertently by a Spartan player.