CATHOLIC HIGH DROPS ‘VLIET
Watervliet strong start not enough to get past Crusaders
WATERVLIET, N.Y. » A young, energetic Watervliet team forced turnovers and converted on the other end to make things difficult for Catholic Central’s varsity girls basketball team.
For one quarter anyway. From there the Crusaders defense was the difference.
Catholic High allowed 15 points in the first quarter and just 19 the rest of the contest in a 60-36 Colonial Council win over Watervliet Friday night.
“I knew if we settled and made good passes we were going to get layups,” Catholic Central coach Audra DiBacco said. “Defensively Emily ( Frodyma) getting some steals — people piggyback off that. It gets us going.”
After free throws from Meghan Murray and a bucket from Sheila Caminiti, the Cannoneers’ senior captians, the hosts led 15-14 after one quarter.
That changed quickly in the second as Frodyma led the charge with consecutive steals that led to layups going the other way. “I’m just looking to stay low and not
focusing on the ball but focusing on where the player is moving her body,” Frodyma said. “If I miss one I don’t get down on myself, I just go for it again. Defense wins our games. When we’re playing defense we hustle more, we make more of our layups and it leads to our offense.”
When Catholic Central wasn’t hitting its shots Riqyia Harris and Aaliyah Juste were crashing the glass to give the visitors plenty of second chance opportunities.
In fact, Watervliet coach Tim Mitchell credited Cath- olic Central with 21 offensive boards in the first half alone.
“They would crash the boards and besides getting extra opportunities we would foul them and we don’t have that type of depth,” Mitchell said.
As the game wore on, the size and experience advantage by the Crusaders wore down the Cannoneers.
Even with two starts in foul trouble, the Crusaders bench was able to pick up the scoring.
“They’ve got so many good kids,” Mitchell said. “We got two of their best players in foul trouble and you wouldn’t even notice. ” The visitors led by five points at the half, 14 after three quarters and 24 by the final buzzer.
DiBacco would like to see her team shake off rough shooting starts quicker in games.
“They always want to make shots so when we start missing like we did in the beginning of the game they start to tighten up,” DiBacco said. “We can’t tighten up when we miss shots, just keep playing through it and let our defense create offense for us.”
Frodyma, a senior led Catholic High with 16 points. Hannah Field came off the bench to score 11 points, Sarah Mattfield finished with 10, Ahniysha Jackson had eight and Harris added seven in the win.
The well-rounded scoring effort is something the Crusaders will rely on this season. Being a team with many interchangeable parts helps as well.
“We’re not the biggest team but we’re long, we’re lanky especially when we’re getting out being aggressive,” DiBacco said. “I can sub a guard in for a post player because we’re long.”
Murray scored 11 points to lead the Cannoneers, Caminiti had 10, Amia Maldonado finished with six and Makayla Milligan added five.
“We did a good job (with) our zone press, they executed it pretty well,” Mitchell said. “We got some turnovers which is what we needed to do.”