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Williams’ 19 points lead Howland to 11th victory
Special to the Vindicator
Photo
Howland's Olivia Nicholas (2) drives to the hoop Wednesday night in Howland, as Green's Lydia Covle (15) looks on.
GAME TIME
Next: Howland at Hubbard, Monday, 7:30 p.m.
Special to the Vindicator
Photo
Howland's Taylor Williams (24) drives to the hoop as Taylor Saddler (32) and Erich Rector (3) play defense during their game Wednesday night in Howland.
By Tom Williams
HOWLAND
The Mahoning Valley’s best high school girls basketball team capped a competitive week with a 23-point victory that avenged one of last season’s few losses.
Junior post player Taylor Williams scored 19 points on Wednesday to lead Howland (11-1) past Green (7-6), 67-44.
“We lost to Green last year by eight,” said Williams who also contributed seven rebounds, four blocks and five steals. “Logan Pastor is obviously a huge threat. You just have to come into weeks like this hard.”
Pastor, a Bowling Green recruit, scored 11 points while Morgan Jackson led the Bulldogs with 18, including four 3-pointers.
“When she wanted to put it in, she was putting it in,” said Williams of Pastor.
Still, Howland coach John Diehl was pleased with how well his Tigers defended.
“The last two games, our defense has been very, very good,” said Diehl, referring to Sunday’s 65-57 loss to Harvest Prep at the Country in the Classic. “We had a pretty good rotation tonight.
“Taylor did an excellent job inside,” Diehl said. “Logan Pastor is probably the premier guard in Northeast Ohio and we did a real nice job defensively on her.”
Diehl cited how well Paige Loychik and Natalie Silbaugh worked to contain Pastor.
“This was our best week of competition this year,” Diehl said, referring to defending Division IV state champion Harvest Prep.
“We play some other great teams, just not back-to-back. I didn’t know how we’d react emotionally after Sunday’s game.”
After a back-and-forth start, the Tigers pulled away for a 20-11 lead at the end of the first quarter.
“We wanted to have revenge,” said Tigers guard Olivia Nicholas who scored 13 points. She was referring to one of the Tigers’ four losses last season.
Silbaugh and Erika Nites also scored 13 points each.
Sparked by one of Pastor’s 3-pointers, Green posted a 7-2 run to open the second quarter to slice the Tigers’ advantage to four points.
But that’s as close as the Bulldogs would get as a Williams basket and a Silbaugh 3-pointer put the Tigers well ahead.
“We started to relax as a team,” Nicholas said of the second-quarter surge that gave the Tigers a 36-23 lead at halftime. “Defense, we have a little bit of trouble on ... but I think if we keep working hard and practicing we’ll get to the level we should be at.”
For Green, Lydia Corle scored 12.
As for the offense, Diehl suggested his players have some strategies that need fine tuning.
“We ran about five different offenses in the fourth quarter,” Diehl said. “That was the first time that the press has given us trouble this year.”
Williams said the Tigers don’t have a problem with Diehl’s suggestions even when the game was out-of-reach.
“He only wants to make us better,” Williams said. “No matter what the score is. You have to realize that the little things are going to make a difference in the big games.”