Davis nets 22 to lead Springfield to victory

Lowellville’s outside shooting helped the Rockets climb back into the game against the Tigers.

By JOHN BASSETTI

Vindicator sports staff

LOWELLVILLE — A bigger and stronger Springfield Local girls basketball team — led by Ashley Davis’ career-high 22 points — managed to maintain its lead from the early minutes in rolling past Lowellville, 59-51.

Lowellville cut its 17-6 deficit to two at halftime, 29-27, but the Tigers put their physical tools to work to keep the Rockets in check in the second half.

Another senior, Andria Lyons, added 19 points for the Tigers who made 12 of 22 free throws to 4 of 6 by Lowellville.

Lowellville (0-1) was able to stay in the game with 11 three-pointers, including five by Taylor Hvisdak, who finished with 21 points.

“I was a little worried that our conditioning wasn’t going to hold up because we don’t have a very deep bench, so we figured we’d wear out,” Springfield coach Sandi Kohler said. “But they [Lowellville] came out in the third quarter and slowed it down a little and that helped us.

“I was just keeping my fingers crossed that they weren’t going to make that 3 all night because they were hot for awhile in that second quarter,” Kohler said.

Lowellville coach Tony Matisi said that third-quarter tentativeness may have been mistaken as a slowdown.

“At halftime, we told our girls that they weren’t making good decisions of when to run and when not to run,” Matisi said of the option to either run or work the halfcourt offense.

“They became more tentative in the third quarter. We can’t run a halfcourt offense with our size and we want a fast-pace as much as we can. It seemed like we could never make that run and get up a good shot.”

Did Springfield’s height have a lot to do with the outcome?

“Yeah,” said Kohler. “We knew that because we played them in the summer a little and we knew we were bigger than them.

“So, we were just hoping that we could be a little physical down low and box them out and get some boards and try to get a break going, which we did early.

“But then we sort of lost it because we got a little tired.”

After Hvisdak’s 3-point goal to put the Rockets up 3-0 at the outset, the Tigers never trailed.

Lowellville closed within 45-44 early in the fourth quarter, but Kallie Rogers disrupted a dribbler on her way to the basket. Springfield got control and Lyons went to the foul line to make two attempts. Then Davis made three straight points to put the Tigers ahead, 51-47, but Kaye Solak’s two free throws brought Lowellville within 51-49.

Brooke Schrieber’s free throw and Lexi Zubick’s layup gave Springfield a little more breathing room, but the conclusion wasn’t imminent until Zubick grabbed an inbounds pass and passed to Lyons whose layup sealed Lowellville’s fate, 57-49.

“She grabbed the inbounds pass, so I cut to the middle and got the pass,” Lyons said of the play with 1:04 remaining.

Davis said that situational drills at practice helped in such instances.

“We practice that if it’s close at the end,” said the 5-10 Davis.

Lyons was 7 of 9 at the line.

“For a first game, I don’t think they expected us to run as much,” Kohler said of Lowellville. “I think maybe they got a little bit tired and I think that’s what affected them in the fourth quarter.”

Matisi picked the times to press, but they weren’t many.

“We’ll play fullcourt the whole game but we won’t deny. We just want a good, solid defense to try to wear them down,” said Matisi, who had two players on the bench with injuries.

“We only played seven kids because we didn’t want to get into a situation where we had to press the whole game. We tried to pick our spots.

“I thought in the last 3-4 minutes we lost our legs a little bit shooting. Forcing some things and not taking time squaring up and shooting.”

bassetti@vindy.com