Abby girls beat Eagles, Bucs, now 5-1

The Falcons went 2-0 over the past week, defeating the likes of Marathon and Prentice to continue their early season success.

Prentice, 54-47

Abbotsford grabbed 23 offensive rebounds and scored 18 second-chance points to defeat Marawood-North foe Prentice on Tuesday evening. The Falcon girls also took advantage of plethora Buccaneer turnovers in the 54-47 victory.

With Prentice shooting nearly 50 percent from the floor and the Falcons going just 3-26 from beyond the three-point line, Abbotsford needed to find other ways to take down their conference opponents. Not allowing their opponents to shoot seemed the most effective strategy.

After a tight first half, the Buccaneers held a small 26-24 advantage heading into the second period. With neither team able to maintain much of a lead, the Falcons decided to turn to their zone press late in the game, a move that would turn the tide in the Falcons favor.

Steals from Brissa Diaz and Sommer Brodhagen turned into layups that would give Abbotsford the lead and spark a 16-2 run. While Prentice battled back at the end, the lead that the Falcons had established was more than enough to claim the victory.

Briseida Escalera led the team with 18 points, followed by Sydney Falteisek with 15. Adriana Fuentes-Rivera pulled down 11 rebounds and recorded seven steals to lead the team in both categories

62-52

The Falcons got 31 points from Sydney Falteisek and used a run in the middle of the second-half to pull away from the Auburndale Eagles in a Marawood-North/ South crossover game last Friday. Abbotsford dealt the visitors their first loss of the season, defeating them 62-52.

Coming into the game, Abbotsford was 3-1, having taken an early loss to Athens, but blowing out their other opponents by more than 25 points. The game against Auburndale seemed like it would be a much closer affair than any of the Falcons’ prior contests this season. While the Eagles boasted a 4-0 record before Friday’s game, they looked to match up fairly evenly with Abbotsford.

For the first 18 minutes, the game played out largely as expected, with neither team being able to take an advantage over their opponents. The first-half between the two Marawood teams featured nine ties or lead changes, a statistic that accurately illustrates the back-and-forth nature of the early game. Abbotsford held a 28-26 lead heading into halftime, but it was still clearly either teams’ game to win.

After such a closely contested opening, a three-minute period in the second-half turned out to be the difference maker. Between 12:30 and 9:00 left on the game clock in the second-half, a scoring drought from Auburndale coincided with an offensive explosion from Abbotsford, during which the home team scored 16 points. After having lost their small halftime lead, the trio of Falteisek, Sommer Brodhagen and Briseida Escalera led the Falcons to a 50-38 advantage. Abbotsford then endured a comeback attempt by the Eagles, who managed to bring the game within seven at 59-52 with two minutes left but ultimately ran out of steam in the closing moments.

Falteisek scored half of her team’s points against Auburndale and brought down a team-leading 11 rebounds to add to her 31 points. She also made 11 of her 14 free throw attempts, an aspect of the game where the Falcons dominated with quantity over quality. While they made 17 shots from the charity stripe to Auburndale’s seven, they also had 36 attempts to the Eagles’ eight. Falcons outside of Falteisek went a combined 6-22 from the line.

Outside of the large discrepancy in personal fouls leading to more free throw attempts for Abbotsford, both teams were largely even. The biggest difference between the two clubs outside of free throws came in three-point shooting percentage. While both teams hit five shots from behind the arc, Abbotsford only needed 14 attempts to do so while the Eagles heaved up 29 such shots over the course of the game.

Brodhagen was the second in points and rebounds for the Falcons, ending the game with 15 and eight in those categories respectively. Escalera led the team in assists and steals with five of each and had nine points of her own. Brissa Diaz and Azul Diaz both had three points.

STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD