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Fitch jumps out to early lead in win over Howland
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Howland ‘s Gabby Cvengros (22) and Sara Price (20) try to steal the ball off Fitch’s Cassie Custer as she goes to the basket during the first half of their game Thursday in Austintown. The Falcons downed the Tigers, 65-41.
Fitch jumps out to early lead in win over Howland
By Joe Scalzo
AUSTINTOWN
On Thursday night, Fitch senior Megan Sefcik showed why she’s the Valley’s best girls basketball player.
Her teammates showed why the Falcons aren’t a one-player team.
Sefcik scored 28 points with seven rebounds, seven assists and seven steals and Fitch jumped out to an early lead en route to a 65-41 win over visiting Howland.
“We’ve had different kids stepping up and doing different things all year,” Falcons coach Stacie Cepin said. “Megan is going to do what Megan does, but everyone seems to step up somewhere.”
On Thursday, that was senior Cassie Custer, who had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Falcons (11-0, 7-0 All-American Conference). Afterward, Cepin called Custer one of the team’s most improved players.
“She’s a maniac,” Cepin said. “She’s just given so much.”
Custer scored seven points in the game’s first 31/2 minutes as Fitch jumped out to a 19-2 lead.
“I don’t think any coach in America would complain about that,” Cepin said. “It’s always nice to start fast and get that cushion. We really rely on our defense and that’s what sparked our offense.”
Sarah Melfe added 11 points for the Falcons, who beat Howland last year for the first time since 1994. When asked if they’ve gone from hoping to beat teams like Howland to expecting it, Cepin said, “I don’t expect anything. We’ve got to work for everything. Howland is a great program.
“We’ve got to get through these tough teams that have been there already. We’ve never been in any of these kinds of [league championship] talks, so there are a lot of challenges ahead of us.”
Added Custer, “This year, we’re really all on the same page. We have higher goals than just beating Boardman because they’re our rivals. We want to win championships together. We all have the same goals and we all pick each other up.”
Senior Jordan Entler scored 16 points with six rebounds and five assists for the Tigers (6-6, 2-4), using her quickness to attack the basket despite standing just 5-foot-3.
“She’s been driving to the basket the last few weeks in practice and put it into her game tonight,” said Howland coach John Diehl, who then joked, “She did bank two 3s, though. I don’t know how impressive that was.”
Victoria Rappach added eight points for the Tigers, who were coming off a 13-day layoff due to the holidays and the recent bad weather.
“That kind of hurt us,” Diehl said. “But Fitch is the premier team in the area and they do have the best player in the area on their team. They showed that tonight.
“You can tell those seniors have been playing together for a really long time.”