Abby girls suffer loss to Bluejays

By Nathaniel Underwood

The Falcons took on Athens at home this past Tuesday, aiming to take down the second place team in the Marawood-North. While Abbotsford kept the game closer than the first meeting between the two teams this season, the Bluejays walked out with the win, defeating the Falcons 60-42.

Athens never trailed in the game between the conference rivals, taking an early lead and never relinquishing it. Abbotsford kept the game close in the opening minutes, finding some success in transition and not giving up any easy baskets on the opposite end. Trailing 10-9 after seven minutes of play, the Falcons had kept pace and were poised to take their first lead of the game.

A well-placed timeout from Athens seemed to shift the pace of the game. Athens’ zone defense became extremely aggressive, forcing Abbotsford into a number of turnovers. The Bluejays capitalized, going on a 16-1 run to go up 26-11.

The Falcons did not give up, making their own adjustments to the new defense and managing to cut Athens’ lead to six by halftime.

That was all the closer Abbotsford would get. While they kept things close in the opening minutes of the second period, free throws and points off turnovers continued to pile up for the visitors, allowing them to build their lead in the latter portions of the half. Another huge run for the Bluejays in which they scored 17 straight points all but sealed the game.

The Falcons once again mounted a small comeback as the game moved to its conclusion, but the damage had already been done.

The Falcons matched Athens in many statistical categories, but margins in turnover ratio and free throws looked to be the difference makers. Athens shot 29 free throws and scored 23 points off 31 Abbotsford turnovers. In comparison, the Falcons shot just 15 free throws and had just seven points off 14 Bluejay turnovers. Athens also made better use of their offensive rebounds, getting 15 second-chance points to Abbotsford’s four.

Calley Ruesch led the Falcons in scoring with 15 points. She also had eight rebounds. Sydney Falteisek had seven points and a team high nine rebounds. Sommer Brodhagen also had seven points and Briseida Escalera and McKinley Klabon each had four.