Abby girls basketball
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the field, making 39.1 percent of their shots compared to 30.0 percent for the Falcons.
The two squads battled back and forth over the first quarter of the contest, with Abbotsford coming out on top of the exchange. Phillips jumped out to a 7-2 lead, but the Falcons answered with a strong scoring sequence of their own.
Azul Diaz scored on a fast break and then nailed a threepointer on Abbotsford’s next possession to knot the game up. The senior guard then produced a steal and pushed the ball down the court, scoring another transition basket and putting the Falcons ahead. After a made free throw for Phillips, Asia Atkinson kept the visitors’ production going with a short range jumper that capped a 9-1 run for Abbotsford and gave them an 11-8 advantage.
Turnovers started to pile up for the Falcons over the next seven minutes of game time. Twelve giveaways plus six missed field goal attempts by Abbotsford over that span allowed the Loggers to score 18 straight points. A free throw from Azalea Atkinson ended the Falcons scoring drought, but Phillips still held a 14-point lead.
A layup and subsequent free throw from Celia Schindler a few possessions later cut that lead down to 13, but the Falcons would not get any closer for the rest of the evening. The home team led by as many as 21 points in the first half and held a 38-22 advantage heading into the second.
The defenses limited each other in the second period, something that worked in favor of the home team. The Loggers were able to maintain their double-digit lead for the entirety of the period and a 14-2 run in the middle of the period for Phillips made a comeback for Abbotsford all but impossible.
The Falcons played evenly with their hosts the rest of the way, scoring 10 points over the final seven minutes, but were unable to put a dent in the vast Loggers’ advantage.
“Both of these games were virtually a mirror image of each other as our girls were able to play evenly with our opponents for almost a half,” head coach Larry Lecheler said of the two contests the Falcons played over the last week. “Unfortunately, our nemesis of turning the ball over as often as we do deprives us of shots at the basket resulting in our low offensive scores. On the plus side, we have been doing a little better job defensively when it comes to our help defense and boxing out and rebounding. As a team, we will continue to work on improving in all areas.”
Azalea Atkinson finished as the Falcons’top scorer, putting up 10 points in the loss. She also had seven rebounds and four deflections. Diaz added seven points, making all three of her field goal attempts while bringing down six rebounds and collecting three steals.
Marilyn Hammock and Campbell Brodhagen both had six points each, with Hammock also gathering a team-high eight rebounds and adding three steals. Schindler ended the game with five points, three blocks and five rebounds, Asia Atkinson and Paola Tzintzun both had two points and Nevaeh Treankler had one point and four steals.
ATTACKING THE BASELINE - Riley Podevels tries to find room to operate against a stout Blackhawks defense. STAFF PHOTO/NATHANIEL UNDERWOOD
