Friday, January 20, 2017
Gallery
By Greg Gulas
LOWELLVILLE
Sam Homa has been a huge presence for the McDonald girls basketball team this season.
Her presence in two games against the Lowellville Rockets has also given their Inter-Tri County foe fits.
Homa’s double-double — 16 points and 12 rebounds — and a staunch Blue Devils defense that held the Rockets to just 24 points through the first 24 minutes of action helped McDonald (10-3, 5-1) to a 38-35 victory Thursday in ITCL, Blue Tier action at Lowellville’s Paul W. Johnson Gymnasium.
The win also gave McDonald a season sweep of the Rockets (2-10, 1-6) — they also won, 52-32 back on Dec. 8 — and extended their win streak to five games.
The Blue Devils improved to 4-1 on the road while the Rockets fell to 0-6 at Dick Williams Court and lost for the third consecutive outing.
“Lowellville came out with a lot of intensity, face-guarded and did a nice job of double-teaming me,” Homa said. “Give credit to my teammates because they picked up the slack and just got after it all game. We had a lot of second chance points because of that effort.”
Six points by Homa helped the Blue Devils build an 8-2 advantage midway through the opening period, but five points by the Rockets’ Faith Borer helped Lowellville cut the deficit to 10-7 heading to the second quarter.
Borer finished with a game-high 23 points.
Two buckets by Borer at the outset of the second frame cut the McDonald lead to 12-11, but the Blue Devils went on a 9-4 run, keyed by Homa’s six points to open a 23-15 halftime margin.
Borer scored all eight Rockets points in the session.
“We definitely didn’t play our best game, but you have to credit Lowellville for that. They manned-up Sam, worked hard and our focus wasn’t there, but those aren’t excuses,” McDonald head coach Amy Dolsak said. “We need games like this that test us.”
Dolsak also said Homa works hard whether she has the ball or is back playing defense.
“Sam gets after it at both ends of the court,” Dolsak saud. “Tonight she was looking to post up and rebound. She always goes up hard for rebounds and with 12 tonight really helped us in that area.”
A triple by Borer at 2:43 of the third period cut the McDonald lead to 29-20, but three buckets by Hannah Donkers to end the session helped the Blue Devils open a 33-24 lead with eight minutes remaining.
Five points by Lowellville’s Maddie Warren and a stingy Rockets defense that held McDonald to just five, fourth quarter markers cut the deficit to 38-35, but a time-out by Lowellville with eight seconds remaining didn’t produce the shot they were looking for and their rally fell short.
“The first time we saw them I was a new coach with new ideas. Now, the players are buying into our ideas and we are seeing the results,” Rockets head coach Lisa Modelski said. “That time, Sam Homa was the ‘X’ factor and tonight she was excellent as well, but we did a better job of applying pressure the second time around. Rebounds and put backs just hurt us.”
Both teams were sloppy with the ball as McDonald committed 18 miscues and the Rockets turning the ball over on 17 occasions.