Abby girls suffer second loss of season

The Abbotsford girls basketball squad dropped their only game over the past week, the loss coming in heartbreaking fashion. In a low scoring affair with the Newman Catholic Fighting Cardinals, the Falcons had held a nine-point lead at one point in the second half, only to see it evaporate over the next nine minutes of game time. The Cards walked out the unlikely victors in a 34-32 victory over the visiting Abbotsford team.

The Falcons took the first lead of the game on a transition layup from Sommer Brodhagen a minute-and-ahalf into the game. They would have that lead for 32 of the matchup’s 36 minutes. Save for a brief, 30-second interval just before the end of the first half where Newman managed to tie the game at 12-12 and a short, 45-second period where the home team took a 14-13 lead early in the second half, Abbotsford had led the Fighting Cardinals, sometimes by significant margins.

While neither team shot particularly well, the home team struggled mightily in the first half. Abbotsford kept them to three made field-goals in the half, two of which came in the final four minutes of the period.

Had Abbotsford been able to pounce on the opponent’s initial offensive woes, they may have been able to hold off a late push from the Cards. However, they shot almost as poorly as Newman did in the first half, making only four field-goals over the course of the opening period and going the final eight minutes without a conversion.

It seemed like the Falcons were finally going to pull away in the second half. After trailing for the first time in the game early in the half, Abbotsford responded with a flurry of successful offensive possessions. A tough shot down low for Brodhagen spurred a 10-0 run for the Falcons, capped off with two free-throws from Adriana Fuentes-Rivera to give Abbotsford its largest lead of the game at 23-14. Given the way the game had proceeded thus far, the nine-point advantage felt more like a twenty-point one.

But a nine-point lead is only that, regardless of how insurmountable it may have seemed, and if Newman could find some sort of rhythm, Abbotsford could be in trouble. As the game slowly pushed into its final quarter, the number of empty possessions from the Falcons started to become concerning, with Newman slowly eating into that nine-point lead. A three-point shot from the Cards’ Mallory Rozwadowski with just under seven to play brought the home team back within two. The Falcons responded with a transition basket from Sydney Falteisek two possessions later, but Newman was still very much in the game.

With under two minutes to play, Abbotsford still clung to a three point lead. But two steals turned into two layups for the Cardinals in quick succession, and suddenly the Falcons suddenly found themselves trailing 32-31. With just over a minute left, Abbotsford only managed a single point on their remaining four possessions, which turned out to be too little after Newman converted on two of their free-throw attempts. After having led for nearly 90 percent of the game, and having only trailed in five-percent of it, the Falcons were heading home saddled with the loss.

Brodhagen led the Falcons in points and rebounds, scoring 13 and bringing down 10 boards over the course of the game. Falteisek added eight points and five rebounds and led the team with three assists. Briseida Escalera contributed five points and co-led the team with Brodhagen in steals with three. Fuentes-Rivera and McKinely Klabon each added three points to round out the scoring for Abbotsford.

The Falcons will be looking to bounce back from the loss next week Monday, Dec. 19 when they invite the Pittsville Panthers into town. The Panthers, as of the writing of this article, are 6-1, though comparison between the two teams is a little difficult given that they have not played any similar opponents through the first few weeks of the season. Pittsville has a fairly balanced offense, with five players all averaging over 7.0 points per game. The game is set to start at 7:15 p.m.