McDonald wins battle of unbeaten girls teams

December 21, 2018 at 12:10a.m.

BERLIN CENTER

The Western Reserve girls basketball team entered Thursday’s Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference contest against McDonald averaging 58.1 points.

Six times in eight previous outings Western Reserve scored at least 60 points and twice it eclipsed 80.

But McDonald’s stingy defense clamped down on Western Reserve from the opening tip to final buzzer in a 43-27 victory in a battle of unbeatens.

Olivia Perry scored a team-high nine points, Molly Howard and Sophia Costantino each added eight and McDonald (7-0, 6-0: MVAC) led for all but 94 seconds.

“They play excellent defense and apply a lot of pressure, so we knew that we had to take care of the ball when we had it,” Perry said. “It was important to get the early lead and then maintain it. The most important thing was that we played a full four quarters at both ends of the court.”

A bucket by Dani Vuletich at 6:38 of the opening period gave Western Reserve (8-1, 5-1 MVAC) its second and final lead of the game at 4-2.

McDonald’s Taylor Tuchek hit a bucket in the lane 12 seconds later for a 5-4 advantage and McDonald never trailed again.

Howard had four of her points in the period while Vuletich finished with a game-high 16, including 12 after the intermission.

“We knew that we had to start strong because they have excellent shooters and can score from anywhere on the court,” Howard said. “A win like this, especially on the road, just shows us how good we can be when we work hard. It’s nice to have a little bit of momentum as we move forward.”

Four points from Brooke Lewis, Costantino and Howard then helped McDonald open a 28-15 halftime lead.

“I’m very proud of our defense because we executed our game plan exactly how we wanted it executed,” McDonald coach Amy Dolsak said. “We felt as though we could defend their outside game, knowing that we needed to ‘D-up’ and rebound because they get a lot of points off rebounds and second-chance attempts.

“Olivia is our experienced senior and she really stepped up her game tonight. She remained composed and made excellent decisions when she had the ball. We got into some foul trouble early, then wanted to hold the ball a bit in the second half to stay out of foul trouble.”

Vuletich scored all of her team’s points in the third quarter, but McDonald took a 36-23 margin heading to the final quarter.

“These two teams know each other better than any other team in the area,” Western Reserve coach Steve Miller said. “We left a lot of free throws out there and when you’re struggling offensively, that helps get you back in the game. But not tonight.

“Give McDonald credit because they are a gutsy, confident group that was extremely balanced offensively. We wanted to take away Sophia Costantino and Molly Howard, but others stepped up. We have some homework to do before we see them again.”

Western Reserve was held to two buckets in each of the first three quarters. It made a season-low seven field goals overall and a season-low two assists. Western Reserve committed 15 turnovers to just eight for McDonald.