BOB ETTINGER
CONNEAUT — A team that can keep up the pressure on defense, feed the hot hand and take advantage of mismatches and momentum is sure to keep momentum on its side.
At least that’s the formula the Conneaut girls followed en route to a 61-11 season-opening win over Horizon Science Academy at Garcia Gymnasium on Friday.
“They’re a different team,” Conneaut coach Tony Pasanen said. “Now they recognize without us telling them constantly who has the hot hand. They realized Marissa (Olmstead), down that one stretch, couldn’t miss.
“They did a nice job recognizing the mismatches. That’s the key to keeping the momentum. Obviously, you feed the hot hand and the person who has the mismatch.”
Olmstead finished with 22 points, four rebounds, three assists and four steals. She was backed by Nichele Johnson, who scored 15 points, had 14 rebounds, two assists, three steals and three blocks.
“Number 21, holy cow,” HSA coach Mike Sklad said of Olmstead. “She was lights out shooting the ball.
“Obviously, they force you to choose one to defend. We worked hard to close (Johnson) down and she’d kick it out to (Olmstead). They force you to pick and choose which one you want to defend. If (Olmstead) missed, (Johnson) was right there anyway for the rebound and they were crashing from the weak side.”
That inside-outside combination of Johnson and Olmstead was dangerous for the Spartans.
“She helped me get going,” Olmstead said. “Our biggest philosophy is to help each other. If she doesn’t have a shot, I do. Mostly, we want to go inside and kick it back out.”
“(Marissa helped me out) a lot,” Johnson said. “It was easier for the outside shooters to get shots. Everyone was packing the middle, so it was easier for the outside people to shoot the ball.”
The Spartans outscored the Dragons, 14-1, over the final 6:20 of the first half and led, 29-8, at the break. They carried that momentum into the third quarter where they scored all 13 points that went on the board in the period. They carried that momentum all the way to the final whistle, outscoring the Dragons 19-3 over the last eight minutes.
Over the final 22:20 of the game, Conneaut outscored HSA, 46-4.
After Olmstead and Johnson, Rachel Pryately (5 rebounds, 2 assists, 5 steals) and Tiffany Wick (3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal) each tallied six points and Sarah Campbell (3 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals) added five more.
