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Boardman starts season by trouncing Liberty
By Greg Gulas
LIBERTY
The Boardman High School girls basketball team graduated eight seniors off of last year’s 14-10 squad and head coach Jeff Hammerton was hoping that their first game of the season would allow him to pinpoint any shortcomings.
He didn’t expect his team to already be in mid-season form.
Lauren Gabriele had 21 points and 10 rebounds, Jenna Vivo added 19 points and Lauren Pavlansky notched 11 markers as the Spartans defeated the Leopards, 71-34 in an All-American Conference, intra-division contest Monday at Pete Prokop Court.
“With eight players gone from last year’s team, we knew that we had to prove ourselves right from the start. The goal was to come out strong and just make a statement,” said Gabriele, who posted the game’s only double-double. “We came out and played aggressively on the defensive end, which helped with our transition to the offensive end.”
The Spartans (1-0) raced to the early 10-0 lead just 2:01 into the game with Vivo scoring six of her points, Gabriele adding four and the defense forcing four Liberty (0-1) turnovers just 97 seconds into the game.
Liberty committed 11 turnovers overall in the period.
Pavlansky then hit two of her three buckets from beyond the arc to key an 11-2 run as the Spartans built a 23-4 lead after the first eight minutes of play.
“You never know how that first game is going to turn out and while you know how you want and expect it to go, you just never know,” Hammerton said. “I told the girls before the game to have fun, play hard and get after it defensively. We did just that in the first half, especially in the opening quarter. With a six-player rotation right now, it was really good to get everybody some playing time.
“Credit Liberty, however, because they never quit and just kept coming at us. They fought at both ends of the court the entire game,” Hammerton asaid.
Eight points by Vivo in the second quarter helped Boardman stretch their lead to 38-6 and after Gabriele scored the last seven points of the quarter, the Spartans forged a 45-10 lead at the intermission.
“The one thing we couldn’t afford to do was take Liberty lightly,” Vivo said. “We worked really hard as a team this summer and it showed tonight. Defense has been our main focus and our motto this year is to score off of our defense.”
The Spartans’ defense forced 25 of the Leopards 31 turnovers in the opening half as Liberty settled down after halftime, committed just six miscues in the second half and were outscored just 24-22 overall.
“We’re a young team with over half of our roster made up of freshmen,” Leopards head coach Diedre Watson said. “We start three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior but we’re not making any excuses. We had some first game jitters, but had too many turnovers and could have played better. It’s good to get that first game under your belt and we’ll definitely build on this as we move forward.”
Ten points by Gabriel in the third period helped Boardman stretch their lead to 60-17 while in the final period, Liberty’s Delia Watson and Melanie Bardol combined for 13 points as the Leopard’s outscored Boardman, 17-11.
Boardman held a 26-17 advantage on the boards, also registering 13 steals.