43
Rockets boom over WR
BERLIN CENTER
With just under three minutes remaining in the second quarter of Monday’s Lowellville-Western Reserve showdown, Rockets coach Tony Matisi clapped his hands together four times as Blue Devils’ point guard Colleen Kennehan dribbled the ball past half court. “Get a stop,” he yelled out to his defense.
It did.
Rachel Durbin scooped the ball up off a mishandled dribble, then quickly drove down court. She paused for a second, threw to Kaye Solak who immediately saw Emily Carlson set up at the top of the key.
Three points later, the Rockets were up 26-12, their biggest lead at the time.
Lowellville had many more of its points off transition plays like that and finished with a 71-41 victory over Western Reserve.
“Our game is transition,” Matisi said. “We get a turnover or rebound, then we go with it.”
Ashley Moore had a game-high 21 points and enjoys playing in a fast paced offense.
“The first look is always to push it up the court and look for an easy lay up,” she said. “If we don’t get that, we set up to get an easy, open shot.”
But the Rockets (8-2, 6-0 ITCL) prefer much of the former.
“They don’t know what the word patience means,” Matisi said laughing. “It’s everything we can do to slow them down and run a half court.”
Western Reserve coach Josh Scott said his team was worn out by the Rockets’ offensive attack, altogether.
“They run you up and down all game and we don’t see that too often, so we ran out of gas,” he said. “But, our biggest problem was allowing them to take too many set shots, because we knew they would make them.”
The Blue Devils did create more turnovers than the Rockets, 12-9, but the competition on the glass really did the home team in.
They were out-rebounded by Lowellville 32-18.
“Rebounding was the one thing I stressed at halftime,” Matisi said. “I thought they got back into the game a little bit by beating us on the boards and getting second chances. We had to do that more and we did.”
A 10-0 run opened up the second half for the Rockets and they created four turnovers. However, Reserve scored 13 of the next 20 as Linley Mamonis netted nine of her 11 points.
In the fourth quarter, Lowellville grabbed 10 boards compared to just two from the Blue Devils. It also out-scored them 22-8 in the final frame.
“We have five kids that know how to play smart, handle the ball and slash the boards,” Matisi said. “All I have to do is throw a ball out there and they work hard.”
These two teams face each other again on February 6 and look to remain at the top of Tier Two in the Inter-Tri County League for the rest of the season.
“They’re our main competition in the league,” Matisi said. “They’re so fundamentally sound so you can’t get too lax and they never let down.”
That’s true because the Blue Devils trailed by just seven at some points in the second quarter.
Taylor Hvisdak, along with Durbin and Solak, scored 14 each to make four Rockets that scored in double figures.
Kennehan finished with four steals and 13 points to lead Western Reserve (8-2, 5-1 ITCL).