Rocket reaches 1,000

Senior Ali Grapevine started
with 975 points and scored 25
in a win over Western Reserve.

By JOHN BASSETTI

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

LOWELLVILLE — Tony Matisi was looking forward to Ali Grapevine getting 25 points to reach 1,000 for a career during Monday night’s game against visiting Western Reserve.

But, deep down, Matisi was praying his team would score at least 25 — period.

After scoring just 28 points in a loss to Sebring on Saturday, Lowellville’s 59-25 victory over Western Reserve on Monday was a satisfying contrast.

“We have been struggling to score for the last three games,” the Lowellville coach said. “Coming off a bad game Saturday, we wanted to get it [the 1,000th] done tonight.”

Grapevine got it done when the 6-1 senior post player made a putback early in the fourth quarter.

It represented Grapevine’s 999th and 1,000th points and it gave her relief.

“Once I got it, it was amazing,” Grapevine said. “It was a big relief after it was done.”

She entered the game with 975 points after scoring 17 against Sebring.

Prior to her milestone possession, Grapevine was poked in the eye under the Rockets’ basket.

“I went to pass it out but the girl defending me tried to block the ball and I just got slapped in the face and thought, ‘Oh, that’s great.’ ”

It took Grapevine — verbally committed to West Point — three times to secure her four-digit career total.

“Krissy [Meehan] got me the ball, then I put it up and missed. Then I put it up again and missed and everybody around me was screaming just to make it. It wasn’t like I wasn’t trying.”

Grapevine was convinced that Lowellville’s offensive strategy wasn’t much different than most games.

“Not everyone knew I was close, but I did and we kinda of emphasized getting the ball inside as much as possible,” Grapevine said. “But it wasn’t all about that. We made it more about winning the game because we had to come back from Saturday’s [32-28] loss. So really, it was about taking control of what we want to accomplish.”

Lowellville outscored the Blue Devils in the second quarter, 22-2.

Of Grapevine’s 25 points, only one was a free throw. She also had 11 of her team’s 28 rebounds, while Whitney Palumbo had 13 points, five steals and five assists. Jamie Hymes added 11 for Lowellville (8-7, 7-2 Inter Tri-County League Tier Two). The Rockets made 26 of 51 goals and 6 of 8 foul shots.

Meehan spoke of her pass to Grapevine prior to the big moment.

“We were trying to get her the 1,000,” said the senior teammate. “She’s a big contributor to our offense, so we try to find Ali, who scores most of our points.”

Meehan’s best output this season has been 16 points. The 5-6 guard averages 7 ppg. and four assists. She scored four points Monday.

Now Matisi can concentrate on getting his Rockets thinking about the league race.

“We’ve got two difficult road games [Leetonia and McDonald]. We wanted to get the focus off of it [the 1,000] and onto the two big games we’ve got.”

He said Lowellvile blew its share of the Tier Two lead by losing to Sebring. “Now we’ve got to win out to get back in first.”

By limiting Reserve to 25 points, his defense came to the aid of the offense.

“Because our offense hasn’t been playing that well, we wanted to put the pressure on, defensively, and hope to get some easy buckets via transition.”

Melissa Burky had 12 points for Western Reserve (4-10, 4-4 Tier Two), which made 10 buckets and 2 of 2 free throws. Burky had two 3-pointers, while Ellie Sanders had another.

bassetti@vindy.com