RANDY HISNER
WZBD.com
BERNE – The Parkway Panthers held South Adams to single-digit scoring in every quarter in their 49-29 victory over the Starfires Monday at the Stardome.
The Panthers’ tough interior defense neutralized Starfire standout forward Laney Trausch, holding her to seven points on only six field goal attempts.
“Inside, our girls did a good job of going straight up, not fouling, not sliding over too late, which, you know, is what we work on a lot in practice,” noted Parkway coach Dan Williamson. “It’s good to see it translate to a game.”
The Panthers (9-1) also forced South Adams (5-9) into 29 turnovers, converting many of them into easy fast break buckets. “Defensively, they get after you, and they’re physical, and that bothered us,” said South Adams coach Brett Freeman. “But also, some of our decisions were just poor decisions, where we were trying to push the ball and speed up ourselves a little bit.”
“It’s a good opportunity for us to play a team like this,” Freeman continued. “It’s a little more physical. The conference that they come from, it’s physical basketball. That prepares us, hopefully, for something down the road when you’re playing some of those physical teams that you’re going to handle a lot better than we did tonight.”
The quick, aggressive Parkway guard duo of junior Madelyn Stover and senior Brittyn Bruns pressured Starfire ballhandlers all over the floor. They helped the Panthers hold high-scoring Starfire guard Ana Lehman to four points on 1-of-7 field goal shooting.
“Their guards were a big key,” Freeman noted. “That’s where that experience factor comes in. You know, they’re like a junior and a senior. And so my hope is that’s where our guards will be by that stage.” Freeman’s guards are all freshmen and sophomores. The Starfires have no juniors and only one senior (Trausch) on the roster.
At the half, despite 18 turnovers, the Starfires trailed by only eight, 23-15. They were able to keep the Panthers within reach by pressuring them into shooting only 32% from the floor (8-for-20 on twos, 2-for-11 on threes).
The Starfires needed a good start to the second half to close the gap. Instead they turned the ball over on their first two possessions while the Panthers scored the first six points to go up, 29-15. Though South Adams did get it to 29-20 with a quick 5-0 run—thanks to three free throws by Lucy Schwartz and a jumper by Shaylee Sprunger—Parkway sophomore Abby Williamson hit a pair of threes to spearhead a 9-2 rally. Now the lead was 16 at 38-22. The Starfires’ Adalyn Smith hit a baseline drive with 17 seconds left in the third period to make it 38-24.
A 9-4 Parkway advantage in the first few minutes of the final quarter, initiated by an opening three-pointer by Megan Hughes, dashed any hopes the home squad had of making a comeback.
Schwartz led South Adams with 10 points. Other SA scorers: Trausch 7; Lehman and Smith 4; Charlee Bollenbacher and Sprunger 2.
Madelyn Stover took game scoring honors with 17. Other Parkway scorers: Hughes 13; Williamson 9; Brune 3; KJae Stover, Colbie Smith, and Megan Nichols 2; Cami Langenkamp 1.
Parkway had 15 turnovers.
The Starfires hit 21% on twos (7-33), 27% on threes (3-11), and 60% on free throws (6-10). The Panthers were 45% on twos (15-33), 25% on threes (5-20), and 80% on free throws (4-5).
South Adams will host Northfield on Tuesday, January 6, at 6:00 p.m.
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