CONNEAUT — The Conneaut Spartans girls basketball team broke open a tight contest with the Edgewood Warriors with a powerful inside game, stifling defense and deadly free throw shooting in the second quarter to pull away to a 45-20 Northeastern Conference win Wednesday night at Garcia Gymnasium.
The Spartans (4-4, 2-0) scored the first 17 points of the second quarter, including nine of 12 from the free throw line and used the dominant inside presence of Nichele Johnson with 11 points and eight rebounds and Lachelle Colbert with 12 points and eight rebounds to thoroughly shut down the Edgewood offense.
It was the first time Conneaut had beaten Edgewood since 2004.
That dominance continued in the third quarter as the Spartans outscored the Warriors (0-4, 0-3), 13-3, to make the outcome academic.
Conneaut coach Tony Pasanen was thrilled with his team’s defense.
“The girls played with intensity and a much better understanding of our defensive system,” he said. “They’re working well as a unit now and getting better every game.
“Offensively, we turned the ball over too much but we got a great job of rebounding from Nichele and Lachelle and helped us keep control of things. The biggest thing for us now is that we’re playing with confidence.”
Colbert and Johnson were the only Spartans to score in double figures, but seven players scored in all.
Not much worked effectively for the Warriors offensively. Alyssa DiBenedetto scored 10 points, including six of their nine in the fourth quarter. The highlight of the game came at the final buzzer as Kasi Mercilliott hit a long three-point shot from just inside midcourt.
The size-deprived Warriors had little success getting the ball inside Conneaut’s defense all night, resulting in just seven baskets for a 15.9 percent shooting performance from the floor.
“We knew coming in tonight that Conneaut’s post play could be tough and hurt us, and it did,” Edgewood coach Chris Juncker said. “We played hard, we played good defense for the most part, but we made way too many mistakes and had too many unforced errors that hurt us.
“We’re a young inexperienced team. We’ll just try to go back to practice and try to get better every game.”
Kelly is a freelance writer from Jefferson.
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Related Photos
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JUSTINE VANCISE of Conneaut goes up with the shot against Alyssa DiBenedetto of Edgewood in first-half action at Garcia Gymnasium in Conneaut. BILL WEST
Discussion
Spartans plead the second
Conneaut uses big run in NEC win
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Scholastic Statistics:
WRESTLING
NON-CONFERENCE
Riverside 31, Edgewood 28
at Edgewood -
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FRIDAY, FEB. 10
Boys Basketball
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