Amherst uses 19-0 run to win tuneup

With the girls basketball regular season winding down, most remaining games are more about tournament prep than anything else.

So, when Bay hit the road to face Amherst on Feb. 14 in the final game of the regular season for both teams, there were no conference titles or awards on the line. Instead, it was two teams getting ready for the tournament.

The Comets never trailed, but pesky Bay hung around for nearly three quarters before a 19-0 run by the hosts broke the game wide open, resulting in a final score of 58-36. Amherst is now 12-10, while the Rockets fall to 7-15.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the senior night victory for the Comets was the continued emergence of Bradyn Silvasy. The senior scored a career-high 15 points to share game scoring honors with teammate Kayla Ferancy, while Kristen Kelley added 13 to the cause. Bay was topped by 11 points from junior Norah Trefz, the only Rocket to reach double figures.

Kelley and Ferancy, both seniors, have been Amherst’s leading scorers all season, as they combine to average more than 31 points per game. But this was the fourth consecutive game that Silvasy has reached double figures, which could be a key to how far Amherst is able to go in the Division I tournament. The Comets host Canton GlenOak on Feb. 17, and if they win that game they would probably play at Medina Highland on Feb. 22.

“We need that,” said Amherst coach John Rositano. “We need that third scorer. You have to have three in order to beat good teams. That’s the fourth straight game in double figures for Silvasy. She’s been a lot more aggressive and she’s emerging as a really good scorer.”

For the most part, Silvasy is a spot-up 3-point shooter. Ferancy and Kelley are more adept at attacking the basket, so she sets up outside the arc and waits for the ball to be kicked out to her. Against Bay she made four 3-pointers, including two during the decisive 19-0 run that straddled the third and fourth quarters.

“My teammates have really helped me out by kicking it to me, by passing it to me, and I’ve been able to help them out, help with the scoring,” Silvasy said. “They’ve been doing a good job of helping me out.”

After a tight opening few moments that resulted in a 4-4 tie, the Comets appeared ready to break the game open in the final 5 minutes of the first quarter, holding the Rockets scoreless and authoring a 10-0 run to close out the period with a 14-4 advantage. But Trefz hit three consecutive 3-pointers to open the second period, bringing Bay right back into the game.

From there, Amherst always led, once by as many as eight points, but Bay kept battling back to keep the game within reach. The Comets had a 26-19 advantage at halftime, but just under 5 minutes into the third period, the Amherst lead was down to 34-29. That’s when Amherst took control of things.

Within a span of just of 3 minutes, Silvasy hit two 3-pointers and Anna Phelan added one. A bit later, Kelley added a long bomb and Ferancy had a traditional three-point play. When Silvasy banked in a mid-range jumper 3 minutes into the final quarter, the Comets had a 5329 lead, and the Rockets couldn’t recover.

“I thought we were just soft,” Rositano said of the run. “I thought we could have been a lot more aggressive on the perimeter. We got a lot more aggressive and they took a couple bad shots, we got a couple turnovers and got some runouts and we loosened the game up a little bit.”

While Amherst was building up the score, Bay went cold and also had some ill-timed turnovers, many of which were unforced.

“Amherst has a talented, talented group,” said Bay coach Lauren Heldt. “Obviously, they’re senior-oriented. They have a lot of experience and a lot of talented offensive players. We were just a little late on a couple of help rotations, and they took advantage. They made four 3s there, and that’s the difference. Once you start hitting a couple threes, all of a sudden it goes from a one- or two-possession game to 15 points really quick.”

The Rockets open their tournament play on Feb. 21 when they face host Firelands. Bay’s won-lost record is nothing to write home about, but it is somewhat deceiving. Of their 15 losses, eight were by a total of 37 points. In other words, the Rockets are good at keeping pace with teams, but they need to get better at finishing games.