Unbeaten Howland rolls to ninth win

By Jim Flick

STRUTHERS — The Howland High girls basketball squad was a hot team on a cold night Wednesday, beating Struthers, 61-24, to remain undefeated.

In boosting their record to 9-0, the Tigers were led by senior Kelly Barzak, who scored 24 points and snagged 12 rebounds. She also blocked shots on consecutive Struthers’ field goal attempts in the first quarter.

Barzak had plenty of support from her teammates. Ten other players scored points for the Tigers, including Taylor Williams, who scored eight points, and Abby Nicholas, who netted six points. As a team, Howland connected on 26 -of-55 field goal attempts.

Leading Struthers in scoring was Amanda Ditman with nine points. Ditman also led her team in rebounding, pulling down seven.

As hot as Howland was from the field, Struthers was simply cold. In fact, Struthers put up only one less field goal attempt than Howland, but connected on only 9-of-54 attempts.

In addition to putting the ball in the hoop more efficiently, Howland also pulled down more rebounds, 28-21.

Barzak, a 6-foot 1 senior, is a key to Howland’s success, Tigers coach John Diehl acknowledged.

“Barzak’s consistent,” Diehl said. “If she gets the ball down low, she’s going to score.”

Diehl also credited his team’s strong defensive efforts for forcing Struthers to shoot poorly.

“We pressured them full-court, man-to-man. That’s why so many of their shots fell short.”

Struthers coach John Grandy refused to make excuses for his team.

“I’m not disappointed in my team,” Grandy said. “We’ve got some good young players. We’ll be all right.”

Grandy noted the Wildcats’ leading scorer was at home with the flu, and a second player became sick during the game, but refused to use ailing players as an excuse.

“We didn’t shoot very well,” the Struthers coach admitted, noting that his team’s poor field goal percentage reflected “Howland’s strong defensive pressure.”

Struthers kept game fairly close in the first quarter. Barzak scored eight of Howland’s first nine points, and the Tigers led 13-7.

But Howland exploded in the second quarter, outscoring Struthers 21-4 in the quarter to take a 34-11 lead at halftime.

The third quarter was Struthers’ strongest of the game, as the Wildcats scored 10 points. But Howland scored 14 in the stanza, boosting its lead to 48-21.

With her team leading 52-22, Barzak departed the game halfway through the fourth quarter. With a number of reserves in the game during the final minutes of the game, Howland outscored Struthers 13-3 in the fourth quarter.