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Fitch soars above Lakeview
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Fitch’s Megan Sefcik (11) shoots over Lakeview’s Alli Pavlik (15) during Monday’s game in Austintown. The Falcons cruised to a 53-26 victory.
AUSTINTOWN
If Monday night’s girls basketball game between the area’s only one-loss teams was a heavyweight fight, it would have been called after the second round.
Austintown Fitch used stifling defensive pressure and hot shooting early to jump on Lakeview and cruise to a 53-26 victory.
The Bulldogs were on the ropes early as all five starters for Fitch scored in the first quarter. It was the 17-2 lopsided second quarter that was ultimately the knockout punch.
“I think we really stepped up defensively,” said Fitch coach Stacie Cepin. “They just really bought in to what we were going to do tonight.”
The game also featured a great individual matchup between two of the area’s top three scorers.
Lakeview’s Alli Pavlik entered the contest averaging 27 points and 5.8 steals per game, while Fitch’s Megan Sefcik wasn’t far behind at 19 points and 6.3 rebounds.
Much like the game itself, the Falcons’ (19-1) star had the upper hand, scoring 22 points and getting 11 rebounds. Pavlik also turned in a double-double, although hers was much more unconventional.
Pavlik was limited to just 12 points on the night, but did manage to record 10 steals for the Bulldogs (19-2).
“She was our main focus on defense,” Sefcik said of her counterpart, Pavlik. “We shaded her side, we were trying to force her to take bad shots — she’s a great player, so she was still able to get to the hoop — but our main focus was defensive pressure.”
The Falcons’ relentlessness on the defensive end led to one of Lakeview’s worst shooting nights of the season. The Bulldogs shot just 22 percent from the floor (season average of 43 percent) and were held to 44 points below their average.
“We had a bad night,” said Lakeview coach Adam Lewis. “We had a bad shooting night, we had a bad defensive night.
“The kids were up for this game; we just didn’t have it tonight.”
The Falcons denied Pavlik the ball from the opening tip and even when she got it in her hands, she was either 30 feet from the basket or had two defenders around her.
“We’ve seen basically every single thing there is to stop Alli,” Lewis said. “They didn’t really do anything that we haven’t seen; we just didn’t execute what we needed to tonight.”
Not only did the Falcons force Lakeview’s scorers into bad shots, but when they did get to the rim almost every attempt was contested. The Falcons dominated the boards, out-rebounding Lakeview 33-15.
“This was a team win for us,” Sefcik said. “All of [my teammates] shots were going down and I’m proud of them.
“It’s a great night for us.”
It was senior night in Austintown as all five senior starters were honored prior to the game. What they weren’t expecting was to get a chance to walk off the court for the final time to a standing ovation with the game out of reach.
“It’s truly special that they came out and played the way they did,” Cepin said. “It’s one of those bittersweet moments where this is the group you dream about and it’s slowly coming to an end.”