INDIANS START FAST IN THE NE8
By Matt Maher
Girard, OH – What a way for Girard to open up conference play against South Rnage! Coming off of a 47-21 victory over Jefferson, Girard kept the momentum going with another big win, putting up 34 points to South Ranges 19.
The first quarter saw Girard score first but South Range looked confident and found a 6-4 lead early on. It would take one timeout for Girard to figure out what needed to be done and would respond with eight more points and lead the quarter 12-6. Mia Malito found her first four points of the game as did Mackenzee White. Gwen Lowry would lead The Raiders with four points in the quarter.
Girards offense stayed consistent in the second putting up eight combined but the real story of the quarter was The Indians defense! Everyone found themselves involved in suppressing the Raiders offense and forcing them to take less than desirable shots. As a result of this brick wall defense The Raiders would only find two points in the quarter scored by Sophia Lucente. The Indians would also have a lone scorer but that was enough as Malito would catch fire and scorch her way to eight points.
The third was almost identical to the second, great defensive coverage from the Indians led to only three points, a field goal for Lucente and one of two free throws made by Devin Sauerwein. Offense for Girard yielded better results as Malito was not the lone scorer this time, although she did find herself with six more points, White would connect for a 2-pointer and Ally Gassman would put in a bucket accompanied by a foul where she would complete the three point play at the line.
South Range entered the fourth quarter looking like a team down 31-11 but after a series of timeouts from both sides the Raiders would start to click and found themselves in their highest scoring quarter of the night. Sydney Penick was able to find four points and Ceci Foster got herself on the board with two. Along with two free throws made by different player the Raiders would find themselves eight points in the quarter and looked like they could’ve found more if they hadn’t found their second wind so late. The Raiders defense also showed up in a huge way by only allowing three points which were scored off of the only made 3-pointer of the night courtesy of Caylee Wilkes.
While South Range found a surge of energy in the fourth they still had to face a very confident Girard defense and as a result would go on to lose 34-19 to the Indians. Mia Malito would lead all scorers with 18 points on the night while Mackenzee White would finish with six and both Wilkes and Gassman would find five. The Raiders were led by Sydney Penick with six points and Gwen Lowry with five. The Raiders move to 0-3 on the season and 0-1 in the Northeast 8 and are back in action on December 14th when they host Struthers at 6:15PM and The Indians move to 2-3 on the season and 1-0 in conference and will travel to Poland on December 14th, that game tips off at 7PM.
