Abby girls finding form in final stretch
Just one more regular season game awaits the Abbotsford Falcons girls basketball team, a meeting with Rib Lake.
The Falcons will be hoping to win that encounter after dropping their two most recent games. Abby fell to Assumption at home on Friday, and then was bounced out of Spencer by the Rockets, falling to 3-18 overall and 2-12 in the Marawood.
64-21
The Falcons were hosting the Assumption Royals on Friday, but the home court held no advantage. The Royals enjoyed a favorable size mismatch in the paint, and raced up and down the court to take a 11-0 lead early in the first frame.
From there Abby head coach Ally Meserole called a time-out, hoping to get her young players to regroup, but it was not to be, as Assumption stole the next four inbounds passes, and extended their lead to 19-0 with 9:52 to play.
Catie Clement got the Falcons on board with a mid-range jumper that made it 23-2 with 7:38 to score, but the Royals breezed by Abby for a 42-2 lead at the break.
In spite of the first half woes, the Falcons continued to run their offense and push up the floor, and it was a different team that came out in the second half.
Not only did Abby find ways to stop the Royal’s high-octane offense, limiting them to just 22 points, it found ways to put points on the board.
Marisol Garcia and Clement found their range from deep, with each player splashing at least one triple. Clement had a team high eight points, but the story of the second half was Garcia.
Garcia had arguably her best game in a Falcons’ uniform, scoring three times from the floor, in spite of giving up multiple inches to the Royals, finishing with seven points.
Jayden Falteisek added three points, Alea Graff recorded two points and Brittany Fuentes tallied one point.
Spencer, 45-37
The Falcons are coming oh so close to another victory, and on Monday, they nearly pulled it off, but a sluggish start to the proceedings doomed their chances to pull off an upset over Spencer in a nonconference battle between Cloverbelt and Marawood.
“Against Spencer, they went on an eight point run at the very start,” Falcons head coach Ally Meserole said. “If we don’t allow that to happen, we won’t have to play catch-up the entire first half.”
That hot start by the Rockets almost didn’t matter as Abby clawed its way back into the game off of baskets from Jayden Falteisek, and a steady hand at the charity stripe from Bridgett Pogodzinski.
Spencer responded with a heavy dose of Heavyn Kind, who led all players with 22 points. Kind got a lift from her teammates Elexa Post and Jorie Meyer, who scored six apiece, and the Falcons went into the locker room down 28-17.
The Falcons have often been a second half team, and Monday was no different as Abby shut down Kind’s teammates. Outside of Kind, Abby did not allow a single Rocket to score from the floor, and the Falcons held Post and Meyer scoreless in the entire final frame.
By contrast, Abby had five different players knock down a field goal. Falteisek picked up where she left off, and buried a triple, as did Marisol Garcia. Brissa Diaz added a pair of buckets.
“Overall, the team is coming together both offensively and defensively,” Meserole said. “Against Spencer, we saw teammates on offense to find the easy shot.”
The Falcons out-scored Spencer 18-17 in the last period, but Kind’s 13 points allowed Spencer to limp away with a single digit victory.
Falteisek led Abby with 12 points, and Pogodzinski had nine. Alea Graff added six points, Garcia scored five and Diaz recorded four points. Vanessa Maganda aided Abby’s cause with one point.
The Falcons will be looking to apply what they learned from Spencer to their final game of the season - conference tussle with Rib Lake - who escaped from Abby by three points in their last game.
“Defensively, our rotation has greatly improved,” Meserole said. “Against Rib Lake, we need to come out stronger at the beginning.”
