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Lowellville dominates W. Reserve
ITCL SHOWDOWN: The Rockets overcame a sluggish start to claim a 61-37 victory.
By Tom Williams
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The Vindicator/Geoffrey Hauschild.Lowellville's Emily Carlson (14) cuts back in front of Western Reserve's Colleen Kennehan (10) on her way to the basket during the third quarter of a game at Lowellville High School on Monday evening.
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Lowellville's Kelley Hunes (21) takes a shot from beneath the basket past Western Reserve's Hannah Shrader (20) during the fourth quarter of a game at Lowellville High School on Monday evening.
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Lowellville's Taylor Hvisdak (12) changes direction to avoid Western Reserve's Tori Korda (33) during the fourth quarter of a game at Lowellville High School on Monday evening.
LOWELLVILLE — In Monday’s Inter Tri-County League showdown against Lowellville, the Western Reserve High girls basketball team couldn’t have scripted a better start.
But in the second quarter, the speed of the Rockets’ sophomore defenders Emily Carlson, Ashley Moore and Taylor Hvisdak turned a feel-good story into a Stephen King nightmare. Lowellville’s pressure limited the Blue Devils to just 21 more points the rest of the game as the Rockets cruised to a 61-37 victory.
“We had too many turnovers to be able to compete in the second half,” Western Reserve coach Josh Scott said. “We kind of got taken out of the game of what we wanted to do.
When they can play in a comfort zone and we can’t, that makes it pretty tough.”
The Rockets (14-3, 10-1 ITCL) tied the Blue Devils (14-3, 10-1) atop the standings. Both teams have three league contests remaining.
“We’ve been getting ready for this game for about four weeks,” said Hvisdak, referring to the Rockets’ 43-39 loss at Western Reserve on Jan. 4. “After losing to them, we knew this game was our most important one.”
Enjoying the best season in years, the Blue Devils bolted to a 16-10 lead as Sammi Burton and Victoria Brown each scored six points in the opening quarter.
Baskets were a lot harder to come by after that as the Rockets turned up the heat. Western Reserve made two in the second quarter (one at the buzzer), three in the third and four in the fourth.
When the game reversed in the second quarter, Carlson and Moore each made four steals while Hvisdak had three as the Blue Devils committed 15 giveaways. The Rockets led 27-21 at halftime.
Carlson said playing for the title motivated the Rockets.
“We thought about how this was our time on our court with our fans,” Carlson said. “Our intensity picked up.”
The margin grew to 14 points after the third quarter as the Blue Devils gave away the ball 10 times.
“We do feed off each other,” Carlson said of Moore and Hvisdak. “We’re so used to playing with each other, we sort of know what we’re going to do before we make the move.”
Lowellville coach Tony Matisi said his goal was to contain Western Reserve’s Colleen Kennehan.
“She runs the show,” said Matisi whose Rockets went unbeaten in league play last season. “She sets the tone for them and if she get’s going ...
“We can’t defend [if we run] a halfcourt offense because we’re too small so we have to use our quickness and speed [to press],” Matisi said. “We have been working on a passive zone just to slow her down. We went to it and I think it turned the tide in the game. Our transition sets the tone for everything.”
Hvisdak and Carlson each had 10 steals and Moore had eight. Hvisdak led the Rockets with 20 points while Kaye Solak had 18 and Moore 14. Burton and Tori Korda led the Blue Devils with nine points apiece.
“Brown changes the way you play offense,” said Matisi of the Blue Devils’ post player. “She just totally takes any type of penetration away. And they do a good job of covering the shooters. We were struggling with that until we got our full court game going.”
Carlson said her teammates could tell the Blue Devils were rattled.
“Every steal we would get, they would yell,” Carlson said. “We could sense [frustration].”
Carlson admitted the Rockets were frustrated in the first quarter.
“But we knew we had three other quarters to pick it up,” Carlson said.
williams@vindy.com