INDIANS LOOK SMOOTH AGAINST LAKEVIEW
By Matt Maher
GIRARD, OH – As the season continues ton wind down, the Indians continue to stay red hot! After winning 6 of their last 8 games, Girard had every reason to come out on top Monday night and oh boy did they deliver, with an impressive 42-22 victory the Indians kept themselves right behind Poland for first place and with only 2 conference games remaining, every game is crucial for Girard.
If you’re a fan of slow starts this game was made for you because after the first 8 minutes the score stood tied at 2-2. Both teams showed some nice bouts of defense early and both struggled to find the hoop even from directly under it, but about halfway through the frame Lakeview found the first tally, a beautiful rebound by Mackenzie Stowe would finally give the crowd something to react to. While Lakeview found the bucket first it would be Mia Malito in the final moments of the quarter to use her strength to drive to the basket and lay in the equalizer.
The second quarter was the polar opposite of the first with Girard dominating the paint and scoring 21-4 and finishing the half 23-6. Mackenzie Stowe found the first 2 for Lakeview with a mid-range jumper and Anna Haynie found a bucket soon after. While Stowe continued to lead her team, so did Malito. Mia came out of the break with more energy which helped her put up 9 more points including her first and only made 3. Mackenzie White got into a groove and scored 6 points with a made free throw, a 3 and a nice bucket from down low.
Lakeview found themselves with a much improved 3rd quarter and outscored the Indians 11-8. Malito put up two more 2’s and White found 3 more points with another free throw and a 2. On the other side of the floor Mackenzie Stowe stepped it up and scored 9 of the 11 for her team with two made 3’s and an impressive 3-for-4 from the line she continued to prove she was the best of the Bulldogs that night.
While the Bulldogs had a strong 3rd they couldn’t weather the storm and as a result they were outscored 11-5 to end the game. The 5 points came from two different sources and neither were Mackenzie Stowe. Sammi Oravec put up a nice 3 and Annalise DeJulio found the other 2. For Girard Malito put up another 5 points which allowed her to finish with a team leading 20 points. Ally Gassman showed us more of her potential with 4 hard fought points all in the paint as well.
Girard needed this game to go exactly how it did in order to keep up with Poland in the race for the Northeast 8but, despite the score, they did have some troubles against the Bulldogs who still showed some solid defense but just had a hiccup in the 2nd and ran out of gas in the 4th which prompted the bench to sub in for the starters and while they only scored 5 points they gave the Indians their toughest challenge of the night and did not make scoring easy by any means which is just a fantastic thing to see for Lakeview because this team is going to be dangerous when they young ladies are ready for full time varsity minutes. Lakeview will finish their road trip on February 1st when they visit Struthers at 5:30PM and Girard will hit the road and take on Hubbard on February 1st for another important NE8 matchup at 7:00PM.
