43
Howland sweeps Canfield series
By Gary Housteau
HOWLAND
A last-second block by Sara Price of Howland ended Canfield’s hope of avenging an earlier season All-American Conference Red loss.
This time, the Cardinals lost, 40-38.
“It’s a big win,” Howland coach John Diehl said. “It’s hard to beat Canfield twice in the same season which we’ve done now and we haven’t done very many years.”
With 6.8 seconds remaining on the clock, Canfield’s Alexandra Stanic advanced the ball into the front court off the inbounds pass and made a cut to her left at the top of the lane before she hoisted a last ditch attempt at tying the game.
That’s when Price’s heroics came into play.
“I saw her coming down the court and I knew I couldn’t let her get an easy basket and I knew I couldn’t foul her,” Price said. “So I just went up and had to get the ball.
“I knew I had to deny the shot.”
Stanic, a senior captain, was determined to get the ball to the basket.
“It was definitely a lot of weight on my shoulders but I felt proud that [Coach Matt Reel] picked me to do it,” said Stanic who finished with 12 points. “But it wasn’t just that.
“There were things before that that could have helped us win the game so it’s just what it is,” Stanic said. “But I didn’t feel like we lost honestly, we played [well].”
Reel was proud of Stanic’s effort.
“She’s our senior and she’s had to adapt to being a point guard without her really being a point guard with Serena [Sammarone] out,” Reel said. “She’s our senior, we wanted it in her hands, we thought she got a pretty good look, it just didn’t go our way.”
It didn’t look like things were going to go Canfield’s way early when Howland actually sprinted out of the gate and led 16-9 at the end of the first quarter.
Then things actually tightened up. Canfield finally caught up and led 24-23 at the intermission.
“They did a nice job of executing their offense early,” Reel said. “I don’t think they missed more than two or three shots.
“But I thought in the second quarter we kind of got back into it with some defense,” Reel said. “I thought we did a better job of limiting Sara Price, getting her out of her comfort areas, I thought Jill Baker did a really good job with that.
“And then in the second half it was just kind of back and forth. It was just one of those games where it came down to the last possession.”
Diehl singled out Baker, who also led all scorers with 17 points, for her overall performance.
“Baker does a lot more than what the box score shows and we had a hard time actually containing her tonight,” Diehl said. “She’s quite the athlete.”
Price, who led the Tigers with 16 points, is quite the athlete as well.
“It’s nice to be 6-1, isn’t it?” Diehl said. “She shoots, she rebounds, she can bring the ball down the floor, she’s a pretty good player. She’s a competitor and she’s got the athletic ability to be a really good competitor.
“And she’s our all-time leading scorer.”