Taylor heats up, East pulls away, 72-33

The Providence College recruit scored 23 points
for the Panthers.

By CHUCK HOUSTEAU

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

YOUNGSTOWN — The East High girls basketball team was looking forward to its highly anticipated matchup with Youngstown’s only other remaining city High School on the road at Chaney Monday night.

“There was a lot of buzz and excitement about this game,” said East coach Taniesha Franklin. “The girls were really pumped up for this game.”

That excitement turned into a slow start for the Panthers but once last year’s Division II district player of the year and Providence College recruit Brittney Taylor got going, it wasn’t much of a contest.

Taylor scored 23 points in only slightly more than two quarters of action as the Panthers turned back Chaney 72-33.

“I think we were a littly too pumped up for the game,” said Franklin. “But once Brittney got into the flow of the game everyone else picked up the pace.”

East also got outstanding games from sophomores Brianna Dawson who had 21 points and 17 rebounds and Alex Hines who added 19 points.

“That’s a good basketball team over there,” said first year Chaney coach Alan Thorne. “We got off to a good start but we just couldn’t stay with them after the first quarter.”

The Panthers (2-3) who have had to rebuild after moving from Rayen to East this year start only one senior in Taylor.

East starts three sophomores and one freshman after two players left for Ursuline after Rayen closed and Tiara Heard switched over to play for Chaney.

“We’ve played a tough early schedule [East has lost to Boardman, Canfield and Cardinal Mooney] because we thought we were going to have more firepower this year,” Franklin said. “I’m not complaining. We are playing with the hand we are dealt and with Brittney we can still play with anyone.

“She has taken these young kids and they are responding to her leadership. We will be a good team by the end of the year.”

The Panthers looked well on their way to Franklin’s forecast against the Cowboys who were no match for East’s pressure defense.

East forced Chaney into 30 turnovers and slowly began to catch and then pull away after the Cowgirls took an early 9-4 lead.

Taylor scored just seven points in the first quarter and then exploded for 14 in the second period as East outscored Chaney 28-10 to open up a 45-19 lead at the half.

“If we could have taken care of the basketball better we could have kept the game more competitive,” Thorne said. “We didn’t do a good job against the pressure.”

Taylor hit her first basket in the third quarter and then aggravated a knee injury with 5:18 left in the period and never returned to the game.

Franklin said it was just a precautionary move to keep Taylor on the bench.

Dawson and Hines picked up the scoring pace the rest of the period as the Panthers built a 53-23 lead before emptying the bench.

Chaney (1-3) got solid games from Marcinde North who had eight points and former Rayen player Heard who scored seven points and grabbed five rebounds.

East not only was strong on the defensive end of the floor but the Panthers were strong on the boards as they picked off 50 rebounds to 29 for Chaney.