Aggression pays off

By Greg Gulas

Lowellville’s pressure on both ends leads to win over ’Devils

Ashley Moore and Taylor Hvisdak each scored 17 points to lead Lowellville.

LOWELLVILLE – When the Lowellville Rockets are tentative offensively, passing up shots that they would ordinarily have taken, they seem to suffer at both ends of the court.

When they are aggressive, be it with the ball or without, then they can make life miserable for an opponent.

The McDonald Blue Devils only wished that the Rockets were a little more passive Monday at the Lowellville Gymnasium.

Ashley Moore and Taylor Hvisdak each scored 17 points as the Rockets defeated the Blue Devils, 70-55, to take sole possession of second-place in Tier Two of the Inter Tri-County League.

“This was a big win for us, especially since we had lost two of our last three games,” Moore said. “It was a game of runs but the real key was that we were able to stop Joh’vonnie Mosley inside, and then push the ball up the court when we had it offensively.”

Mosley, who had a game-high 23 points, scored 13 markers in the opening period but struggled with just a bucket each in the middle two sessions.

That enabled the Rockets to open up leads of 18 points after intermission and 19 markers heading to the fourth.

“We found that in our last two losses we were hesitant with the ball. We passed up shots that we would ordinarily have taken and it hurt us.

“In our win we were excellent offensively, pushing the ball up the court and taking quicker shots,” said Rockets coach Tony Matisi. “We’ve now gotten back to utilizing our speed and quickness and you saw the end result tonight.”

The Blue Devils raced to an 8-4 lead at the outset on two buckets each by Mosley and Taylor Stanley.

The Rockets, with Moore scoring 13 of her 17 points in the opening period, then went on a 16-2 run to forge a 23-12 lead before settling for a 25-19 advantage after the fist eight minutes of play.

Kaye Solak scored the first three points of the second quarter as the Rockets built a 28-21 margin. When Taylor Hvisdak canned a “trey” at 2:01 of the period, Lowellville then increased the lead to 35-26.

A lay-up by Kaitlin Rutushin at 1:40 cut the McDonald deficit to 35-28, but that would be the closest they would get the rest of the way as a Moore bucket, Hvisdak free throw and two charity tosses by Jamie Hynes helped the Rockets close with a 5-0 run for a 40-28 lead at intermission.

The Rockets (9-3, 5-1) then used a 17-4 run at the outset of the second half as seven girls took part in the scoring to help Lowellville build a commanding 59-40 lead with one quarter remaining.

“We knew that Lowellville was a very good team; a team that is deep and isn’t afraid to shuffle players in and out of the game.

“They run, they press and even though we worked on that in practice, they were still able to wear us down,” Blue Devils coach Rob Hilbun said.

“I told our girls to take it to the rim and work the ball inside to Joh’vonnie and for the most part they did just that.”

Five points by Mosley and four points by Taylor Stanley then keyed a 9-2 run to cut the Rockets’ lead to 68-55 in the final frame, but it was too little, too late as the Blue Devils (6-3, 4-1) suffered their first league loss.