The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Shoregals share the wealth in victory
Avon Lake has nine players with multiple baskets, 15 assists
Christmas came early for Avon Lake as the Shoregals knocked off the host Lorain, 52-23, on Dec. 22 and head into the midseason break on a high note.
Bringing energy from the starting tip, the Shoregals were doing everything right and playing within their offense. On the other end of the court,
they forced the Titans into 22 turnovers.
“One of our big pluses this year has been coming out with intensity on defense and that’s basically our best offense,” Coach Dave Zvara said. “You have to start executing the plays against teams, and they did a great job of that.”
The Shoregals scored in transition and had assists on 15 of their 21 field goals. They also had nine players score multiple baskets.
Avon Lake senior Allie Heschel scored a game-high 12 points and caused matchup problems for Lorain.
A key cog for the Shoregals, Heschel doesn’t always finish the game with the most points, but always has her impact felt.
“(Heschel) sets the tone for us (on defense). She’s not in the scoring column all the time, but she creates a lot of turnovers and has quick hands and that’s a big asset to her,” Zvara said. “It’s a very unselfish team, like last game it was (Elizabeth) Murdock high scorer, Amber (Achladis)’s been there, Arianna (Negron)’s been there, which is good for us because nobody can centralize on one person.”
Heschel said that’s how Avon Lake wants to play: as a team.
“I think all of our games we’re very unselfish. I don’t think any of us are a selfish player at all. So if someone is we tell them,” Heschel said. “Our pressure against all of our teams is the strength for our team.”
Collecting a win in the last game of 2018 before picking things back up on Jan. 3 against Brunswick, Heschel said it was nice to just shut all that down for an afternoon.
Getting caught in the length of a season that spans November to March for some, even Zvara was looking forward to a break.
“It’s a long haul, we played 10 games already and there was some tough games in there. It’s just nice to say we’re going to come in, shoot around for a little bit,” Zvara said. “We’re going to take some days off for Christmas and we come back Jan. 3 for Brunswick. So it’s a long season.”
A frustrated Lorain coach Mark Feldmann did not have positive thoughts to take away after the game.