Devils Make Strides In Balance

The Journal
B
Sports
THURSDAY
December 18, 2014
Hammond Runs To 3-0
Alex Mitchell Gains
Bragging Rights
With 171 Game
LOCAL, A5
BRIEFS
OFA Alumni Hoops
Former OFA Boys and
Girls Basketball players
are being invited to return
to the Bill Merna Court on
Dec. 26.
The annual OFA Alumni Basketball night will be
held with a girls game and
a boys game. The girls
game will begin at 6 p.m.
and the boys game will
follow.
The cost for participants is $15 to cover the
cost of a t-shirt and insurance.
Any former OFA players interested in playing
are asked to contact Mark
Henry at [email protected].
Lisbon Biddy Hoops
LISBON - The Lisbon
Recreation Biddy Basketball Program will begin
on January 24th at Lisbon
Central School.
Participants in K-4th
grade should arrive and
be ready to play at 9 a.m.
and 3rd and 4th graders
should be ready to play at
10:15 a.m.
Registration is closed
for the program. Any
questions please call Tori
at 854-2916.
5th-6th Gr Tourney
On a separate note (as
an FYI) The 12th annual
Lisbon Recreation Fifth
and Sixth Grade Boys and
Girls Basketball Tournament is being held on Jan.
17th at Lisbon school.
Boys will be playing in the
morning and girls in the
afternoon.
Six different schools
are currently registered to
compete.
Al Gutterson Tourney
Heuvelton Central’s
Al Gutterson Memorial
Basketball Tournament
will begin on Saturday
with the consolation and
finals set for Monday.
St. Regis Falls will play
Gouverneur in the first
game at 3:45 p.m. on Saturday with Lisbon taking
on Heuvelton in a junior
varsity and varsity NAC
West Division contest to
follow at 5:30 p.m. and
7:15 p.m.
The consolation and
finals are set for Monday
at 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
QUOTABLE
“Hammond got running
early and showed a lot
of balance. We played
better in the second half.
We just need to keep
improving”
Lisbon Girls Basketball
Coach Dicky Marcellus
INDEX
Mov. Walk B3
Bowling B4
Classifieds B6
Planner B7-8
PROVIDED PHOTO BY EARL DILLON
Hammond’s Courtney Bova drives to the basket against Lisbon on Tuesday.
LISBON - The Hammond
Girls Basketball used its transition play to defeat Lisbon 66-40
on Tuesday in Northern Athletic Conference West Division
Girls Basketball action.
“We focused more on running the floor and staying fundamentally sound. Tonight,
our top six to seven girls played
well together. Defensively, we
held Lisbon in check but we got
a little sloppy late in the game
especially the four quarter,”
said Hammond coach Shawn
Dack whose team improved to
3-0 in NAC West.
Hammond opened 27-16
lead and broke open the game
in the second quarter with a 135 run. Aly Crosby generated 18
points to lead Hammond. Mikayla Horton tallied 14 points
and Courtney Bova added 12.
Sierra Flemming and Cassi
Whalen followed with nine and
eight points and Paige Frisina
supplied a sloid floor game.
Maddie Vine tossed in three
threes for 14 points for Lisbon.
Alex Amo netted 12 with three
threes while Katie Sovie added
10 with two long range threes.
“Hammond got running ear-
ly and showed a lot of balance.
We played better in the second
half. We just need to keep improving,” said LCS coach Dickie Marcellus whose team fell to
1-3, 0-2 NAC West.
Morristown rolled past Clifton-Fine 75-40 to improve to
2-0 on the NAC West campaign
while Heuvelton bounced back
from its first loss with a 77-25
win over Harrisville to improve
to 4-1, 2-1 NAC West.
Morristown 75, C-F 40: A 216 third quarter broke open a 3225 halftime lead for the visiting
Rockets.
“We did a very good job
on both sides of the ball. We
played locked down defense
and really had a good second
half,” said MCS coach Richard
Rupert.
Meghan Vollmer erupted
inside with 22 points and
grabbed 14 rebounds for the
Rockets. Logan Green tossed
in 18 points and Taylor Piercey worked inside for 16 and
grabbed 10 rebounds.
Jessica Geddes posted
10 points while Sam Green
chipped in five points and
posted five boards and Hailey
Whitmarsh and Kristen Snyder
each scored two points.
Rachel Milone provided 14
points for Clifton-Fine (0-5, 0-3
NAC West). Maddy Lawrence
provided 11 and Erica Leroux
finished with nine.
Heuvelton 77. Harrisville
25: The Bulldogs errupted for a
24-6 first quarter lead featured
well-balanced contributions.
Paige McCormick fired in 29
points, tallied six rebounds,
five steals, three assists, and
one blocked shot and Olivia St.
Pierre provided 19 points, 10
rebounds, three steals , three
assists and one blocked shot.
Alex Steele hit three threes in a
13-point, four-rebound effort.
Kylie Piercey added four points,
10 rebounds, four assists, two
steals and one blocked shot.
Morgan Matott scored 11
points and Mackenzie LaPlatney added nine for Harrisville
(0-3 NAC West).
In the junior varsity game,
Heuvelton rolled to a win as
Madison McCormick scored 13
points, Katie Palmer posted 12
points, Kristie Donnelly tallied
11 and Kedan Mack and C. Williams each scored 10.
Devils Make Strides In Balance
15th Ben
Cordwell
Gathers
Fine Field
On Monday,
Tuesday
By DAVE SHEA
Gouverneur achieved a
major defensive priority in
Tuesday’s NAC Central Girls
Basketball game at OFA on
Tuesday night.
OFA answered by achieving its major offensive and
defensive goals in recording
a 45-21 victory in its home
opener.
Heading into the contest
guard Riley Luckie and forward Susie Morrow had accounted for much of OFA’s
offense and the Wildcats
limited the senior duo to
nine and three points.
But the Devils countered
with their most balanced
offense of the season led by
sophomores Taylor Perry,
who scored 17 points, with
15 points and three threepointers in the first half, and
Kiera Johnson who netted
eight points. The duo combined for 11 of OFA’s 13
points in the second quarter
where the Devils started a
pull-away from an 11-9 lead.
Defensively the Devils allowed just seven points in
the second half.
“We have been looking to
get more balance in our offense and tonight we were
able to do that. Gouverneur
did a very good job defensively against Riley Luckie
and Susie Morrow,” said
OFA Coach Lynn Blevins
who will lead his team to
Massena on Friday night.
“We had good teamwork
offensively and defensively.
PHOTO BY DAVE SHEA
OFA’s Taylor Perry handles the ball against Gouverneur in Tuesday’s game.
We are a work in progress
and we definitely made
strides as a team tonight. As
we get further along in the
season I think defense is going to decide who wins our
division.”
Luckie contributed four
assists and four steals to
win while Morrow grabbed
six rebounds and freshman
Chelsea Raven grabbed
nine rebounds while scoring four points along with
Danielle Guimond.
Alisha Way led Gouverneur (0-3) with 11 points and
Emily Bush with five points.
“Our girls played very
good defense tonight and
worked hard,” said Gouverneur Coach Frank Bush.
“But we just didn’t get it
done on offense.”
The 2-1 Gouverneur JVs
got it done on both sides of
the ball scoring a 34-30 win
which dropped OFA to 1-1.
Elaina Porter tallied a
game-high 13 points for
Coach Tim Knowlton’s
Wildcats and Emma Bell and
Taylor Dean each netted six.
Brooke Costigan tallied
seven points for OFA followed by Ali Moore with
six and Shelby Ross with
five. Rounding out the scor-
ing were: Callee Zulauf (3),
Shelby Pinkerton (3), Natalie McCormick (2), Mikayla
Mills (2) and Taylor Mack
(2).
The OFA Varsity and JVs
will travel to Massena on
Friday and return home on
Monday and Tuesday to
host the 15th Annual Ben
Cordwell Memorial Tournament.
The tournament will
once again include four programs with great traditions
in the host Devils, MadridWaddington, Salmon River
and Hammond. Monday’s
schedule will see junior var-
sity matchps are Hammond
vs M-W and OFA vs Salmon
River at 5 p.m. at adjoining
gyms followed by varsity
games between Hammond
and M-W at 6:30 p.m. and
OFA vs Salmon River at 8
p.m.
On Tuesday the JV consolation and championship
games will be played at 5
p.m. following by the varsity
consolation game at 6:30
p.m. and the varsity championship game at 8 p.m.
Malone 56, Potsdam
31: In a matchup of earlyseason unbeatens the visiting Lady Huskies ran out to
a 15-3 first quarter. “We’ll
regroup,” noted Potsdam
coach George Gordon after
his squad slipped to 3-1.
Sarah Vivlamore paced
the Potsdam offense with
nine points followed by
Courtney DiTullio with
seven. Megan O’Connor
worked the paint for the
majority of her game-high
27 seven points as the Lady
Huskies improved to 4-0
and Erin McDonald tossed
through another 14.
B-M 49, Massena 38:
The host Panthers gradually pulled away from a 127 first-quarter lead. Kirstin
Barrett led BMC with a
game-high 18 points followed by Jenna Dufrane
with nine and Arielle Gary
with eight. Bailey Young
paced the Raiders with 14
points followed by Lexis Jacobs with nine.
Canton 104, Salmon
River 28: Natalie DiSalvo
and Maggie Smith led the offense with 23 and 22 points
respectively. Katie Clemmer
added 15. Canton dropped
a nonleague game to South
Jefferson on Wednesday
(see page 6B). For Salmon
River, Brittany Brooks netted 13 points followed by
Kera Ghostlaw with seven.
Howard Excels Through Red Wings’ Shootout Woes
DETROIT (AP) — The
streaking Columbus Blue
Jackets didn’t mind working
overtime again to ear yet another win. Sergei Bobrovsky
stopped 30 shots through
overtime and two more in a
shootout as the Blue Jackets outlasted the Detroit Red
Wings 1-0 on Tuesday night
for their seventh straight victory.
Boone Jenner and Ryan Johansen both scored in the tie-
breaker for Columbus against
Ogdensburg’s Jimmy Howard, who made 29 saves. Detroit has lost four straight.
Columbus has three shootout wins during its streak.
They now own the NHL’s
longest active winning streak.
Pavel Datsyuk had the lone
shootout goal for Detroit,
which has dropped three
consecutive home games in
shootouts and fell to 1-6 in tiebreakers this season.
But picking up points in the
overtime ties has helped Detroit stay in the thick of closes
races in the NHL Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference.
At 17-7-8 Detroit has 42
points and tied with Montreal
for second place in the Atlantic Division behind Tampa
Bay’s 43.In the Eastern Conference Pittsburgh leads the
way with 44 points followed
by Tampa Bay at 43 and Detroit, Montreal and the New
York Islanders at 42.
“I thought it was a very
tightly checked game by both
sides,” said Howard, who has
been the losing goalie in every
shootout. “They just found a
way in the skills competition.”
Bobrovsky allowed five
goals to Detroit in a Nov. 18
shutout loss in Columbus.
Detroit coach Mike Babcock felt bad for his goalie and
offered a critical opinion of
the shootout.
Howard currently owns a
13-5 record and is ranked sixth
in the NHL with 2.05 goals
against average. “What I don’t
like is Howie stood on his head
and leaves the rink feeling like
he didn’t win,” Babcock said.
“They don’t have a home run
derby at the end of a tied ballgame, because it doesn’t make
sense. “But it is what it is, and
there are points on the line.
We’ve got to find a way. Howie
needs to get a win, that’s it.”