43
Hickory’s Arbanas excels at Covelli
By Ryan Buck
YOUNGSTOWN
The present state of the Youngstown State women’s basketball program continues to brighten as first-year John Barnes’ team continued its unbeaten run in Horizon League play on Saturday at Beeghly Center. About a mile away, his program’s future looked just as promising.
Hickory senior point guard and 2014 YSU signee Nikki Arbanas led the Hornets to an impressive 66-34 victory over Struthers at Lariccia’s “See Them Rise” High School Basketball Showcase at the Covelli Centre.
Struthers coach John Grandy watched his team, who is still in contention for an All-American Conference American Division crown, struggle to match up with one of Pennsylvania’s top Class AAA teams.
“I thought they beat us in every facet of the game,” Grandy said. “They did all the things they had to do. They out-hustled us, they out-worked us, they out-rebounded us; they did defensively, they got after people.
“They did all the things you want your team to do.”
Arbanas, a 5-foot-7 true scoring point guard, drilled six 3-pointers and repeatedly burned the Wildcats’ defense with her quickness and passing for a game-high 24 points.
“The inside-out game was working really well,” Arbanas said. “We pushed the ball up the floor. We didn’t start out the way we would have liked to. It took us a couple minutes to get into the groove, but once we did we all played together.”
Arbanas was not the Hornets’ only option and it was evident early. Senior forward Holly Grober — who has signed to play at Walsh University — scored 13 first-half points as the primary beneficiary of Arbanas’ tempo-pushing breaks and deft passing into the post.
Struthers got as close as 3-2 on Ashleigh Ryan’s basket, then saw the 5-foot-11 Grober score over and around their interior defense at will.
“It’s just discipline and being able to recognize it, and patience, “ Hickory coach Jeannette Whitehead said of her team’s front-and-back-court balance. “The interior—Grober and [forward Nicole] LaCava — they’re very smart down there and they know if they’re being double-teamed to kick it back out.”
Ahead 18-6 after five straight Grober points, Arbanas hit two 3-pointers, including a buzzer-beating dagger to close out the first quarter on a 13-0 run.
Struthers managed to cut the deficit to 11 in the second, thanks to two straight baskets by McKenna Shives. But Grober’s post-up, twisting lay-up preceded Arbanas’ third 3-pointer of the game on their next trips down the floor.
Leading 43-20 midway through the third, Arbanas’ cross-court pass in transition found a wide open Megan Chess for three more points.
“I think you have to look up the floor all the time and as the point guard, you always have to see openings and to know your players,” Arbanas said.
On Struthers’ next trip, the future Penguin stole a pass at her own foul line and out-ran the Wildcats’ defense for a break-away lay-up.
Brittany Zupko led the Wildcats with 15 points while Ryan scored nine and Shives six.
Arbanas has 10 months until her arrival on the YSU campus, but her performance against one of the top teams in the Penguins’ backyard should have Barnes feeling optimistic about the future of his point guard rotation.
“She has that balance on the floor,” Whitehead said, “and she doesn’t have that tunnel vision. She has that ability to see and recognize her teammates and the defense that she’s confronted with. That’s a skill.”