After an early test, Lowellville rolls

Photo by: Nick Mays

Special to the Vindicator

Photo

Emily Carlson (14) pulls up for two as Hannah Shrader (20) plays defense Thursday night in Lowellville.

Photo by: Nick Mays

Special to the Vindicator

Photo

Taylor Hvisdak (12) tries to drive to the hoop as Hannah Mowery plays defense Thursday night in Lowellville.

By Joe Scalzo

scalzo@vindy.com

LOWELLVILLE

Lowellville High girls basketball coach Tony Matisi entered Thursday’s game with a 9-0 record that included a 37-point average margin of victory.

“It’s been pretty boring so far,” he said.

It was supposed to different against Western Reserve. And for one quarter, it was.

Then the Rockets turned up their defensive intensity and quickly turned away Western Reserve’s upset hopes, rolling to an 80-42 Inter Tri-County League Tier Two victory.

“We knew this was our toughest game and our most competitive in the league,” said junior guard Taylor Hvisdak, who scored a game-high 19 points to go with eight rebounds, six assists and two steals. “They’re a good team and they work really hard, but we work really hard and we were prepared.

“We were psyched for it.”

Lowellville (10-0, 5-0) led just 14-12 after one quarter and Matisi challenged his team to “start playing some defense” just before the second quarter began. They listened, forcing 10 turnovers to outscore Reserve 30-7 over the next eight minutes.

“We expected to play four quarters like we did the first quarter and unfortunately it didn’t happen that way,” said Blue Devils coach Josh Scott. “When they hit some shots early, I think my kids kind of felt like they needed to rush things more than they should have.

“I wanted them to stick with the way we play and not to change for them, but unfortunately we did that for three quarters.”

Tori Korda had 11 points and 10 rebounds for Reserve (7-2, 4-1), while Colleen Kennehan had 10 points.

Junior Ashley Moore had 19 points, 10 rebounds and three steals for the Rockets, while sophomore guard Madison Opritza had 15 points and Emily Carlson 13 points and six assists.

It was Lowellville’s first game since losing starter Kaye Solak with a torn ACL and while the Rockets held a 41-38 edge in rebounds, Solak’s absence was obvious when the game slowed down into a half-court pace.

“She did a lot of the dirty work,” Matisi said of Solak, who was his second-leading scorer and second-leading rebounder. “I’m pretty sure Maddie [Opritza] and Kelly [Hynes] and Rachel [Collins] are gonna pick up the scoring end of it but the dirty work is what’s gonna hurt.”

Despite the lopsided final score, Matisi was encouraged to see his team get tested. With his team trailing 11-8 late in the first, he opted to let them play through it rather than call timeout.

“It was a big game and I think it was the first emotions and nerves we’ve had all year,” said Matisi, whose closest game was 29 points this year. “I wanted to let them work through it.

“They did and they got rid of it [the nerves] and we just played our ball.”