Shives and Smrek dominate for ’Cats

January 24, 2012 at 12:03a.m.

By BRANDON JUDEH

NEWTON FALLS

Mckenna Shives and Halle Smrek dominated on both ends of the court as the Struthers girls basketball team defeated Newton Falls 69-47 on Monday night.

Shives hit six 3-pointers on her way to a game high 22 points. Smrek scored 16, but it was her defense that got her team out to a hot start.

“As a team we work very hard and like to play aggressive defense which leads to open looks on the offensive end. We realized early on that we needed to settle down and play our game and not fall into the game they wanted to play,” said Smrek.

She had four first quarter steals, five in all, that helped the Wildcats build an early 17-5 lead.

To go along with her 16 points and five steals she added 10 rebounds and three assists. To sum it up, she was everywhere on the court.

“Defensively we wanted to stop them from driving to the basket and sometimes it worked sometimes it didn’t,” said Struthers coach John Grandy. “The Tigers have a nice team, we had our hands full, and they got us into some early foul trouble. Ashley Hefferon and Ashley Kane did a tremendous job off the bench.”

Despite a lopsided first quarter Newton Falls (8-5) came out in the second quarter with two things in mind: Better transition defense and crash the glass hard.

“I thought in the second quarter we picked up the defensive intensity and got a few stops and narrowed their lead down to seven after they had been up by 14 or 15 points,” said Newton Falls coach Mark Baker.

The Tigers attacked the basket, getting to the foul line 30 times and connecting on 18 of their free throws. Hannah Zelle led the way with 10 free throw attempts and 13 points.

Turnovers would doom Newton Falls as the Wildcats (12-1) had 11 first-half steals and 15 all together.

The start of the third quarter featured both teams exchanging defensive stops, but a 25-foot 3-pointer by Shives at the horn took the momentum from the Tigers.

Baker felt the game was a lot closer than what it appeared.

“They hit a couple huge 3-pointers that really pushed the score up,” he said. “Struthers really hit a lot of big shots with hands in their face, they did a great job.”

The Wildcats held Newton Falls to only 10 fourthquarter points.

Also chipping in for the Wildcats’ balanced attack were Ashleigh Ryan with 15 points and a game-high five assists.

For Newton Falls both Rachel Ellis and Brooke Barreca had 10 points and Victoria Workman added five points and four rebounds.