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Boardman defenders shut down Valley Christian
Gallery
Boardman defenders
shut down
Valley
Christian
By BROOKE MEENACHAN
BOARDMAN
The Boardman girls basketball team has always been known for its style of defense. Press and if that’s not working, press some more.
Nothing’s changed.
The Spartans (8-5, 3-3 All-American Conference, Red Tier) had a rocky start to the season, going 2-5 in their first seven contests. So they went back to the drawing board and focused on what they know best.
That’s right. Defense.
“Our goal is to hold or try to hold everybody to 40 or less. And during this streak, nobody has scored more than 45,” Boardman head coach Jeff Hammerton said. “If we can keep it there, I think we can score in the 50s. We should be pretty successful.”
Boardman held Valley Christian to almost half of that. The Spartans defeated the Eagles 54-28 on Wednesday night to raise their winning streak to six.
“It’s awesome to win six in a row,” said Boardman’s Jenna Vivo. “We started off rough and finally found a way to win and play together.”
Vivo scored 10 points and was one of four players in double figures. Lauren Gabriele led the Spartans with 15, Lauren Pavlansky had 11 and Alicia Saxton added 10,
Vivo also had eight defensive rebounds.
“We just knew we had to calm down and forget about those games we were losing and just find our rhythm and find our game and play our game and not the other teams,” Pavlansky said.
Boardman’s half-court pressure was too much for the Eagles to handle. The Spartans jumped out to a 13-0 lead before Taylor Jones hit a basket for Valley Christian at 4:07 of the first quarter.
“We play off of our defense. That’s how coach [Hammerton] tells us to score,” Vivo said.
Boardman led 18-2 after one quarter. That’s when the Spartans started to fade.
“We’ve been notorious for having a bad second quarter. We were minus a starter [Annaliisa Cordova], so we were kind of thin,” Hammerton said. “I think we ran out of gas. We’re working so hard at the defensive end. We’re pressing really hard and our offense suffers a little bit.”
Valley Christian (5-6) held the Spartans to just six points and the Eagles were able to cut the deficit to 24-8 at the half.
But Boardman began the second half the way it started the game — by forcing turnovers.
“We were worried about their pressure. What we find is that teams that like to press don’t like to get pressed themselves,” Hammerton saod.
The Spartans opened the second half with a 10-2 run just off steals and foul shots. They finished with 13 steals, including seven by Vivo.
But Boardman also committed 15 turnovers.
“We’re a little unhealthy right now, so it was hard to rejuvenate,” Vivo said. “We didn’t play our best. We just didn’t move the ball as good as we should have.”
The Spartans led 37-17 at the end of the third quarter and pulled away in the fourth.
Daisija Parks led the Eagles with nine points and Imane Snyder had eight.
Boardman vists Poland on Saturday. The Bulldogs are also known for their pressure.
“Poland is another team that presses and gets after it, so basically the same kind of game plan: Beat that press, not just beat it to get into the halfcourt, beat it to score,” Hammerton said.