Shen girls scoring storm powers past Shaker
25-8 third quarter gives Plainsmen win over Bison
CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. » The impending mid-week snowstorm was 12 hours away from arrival to the Capital Region, but the Shenendehowa girls basketball team once again created a snowball effect of offense that put away Shaker 66-37 Tuesday night on the Clifton Park campus.
Utilizing a 25-8 third quarter, the No. 8 ranked Plainsmen (13-1 Suburban Council, 16-2 overall) surged ahead of the Blue Bison (10-3 league, 12-5 overall) and continued to stretch out the lead late.
“This is a team that I’ve been watching in the last three or four games that has just been big games and big descrepencies as far as far as what they’ve done and we just couldn’t let them get into that snowball, but unfortunately that’s what happened,” Shaker coach Rob Beaudoin said. “When you let a team that goes from four to 10, to 15 to 20 then they just keep on pushing and pushing.
“We missed some shots that we should have hit, we missed some foul shots that we should have hit, could have kept us more into the game, but we just didn’t have it. We kind of struggled with that. The three quarters I thought we were OK, the one quarter that wasn’t, that’s kind of what we’ve done, that one quarter that wasn’t for the last two or three games and against this team you can’t do that.”
Shaker was led by Lexi DeBetham’s 15 points as Julia DeBetham added nine and Shyla Sanford followed
with eight points.
The Plainsmen were led by St. Francis Brooklyn-bound Alexandra Tudor with a double-double, 21 points and 10 rebounds as her game continues to evolve.
“Over the last year, even through AAU and stuff I’ve tried to work on my rebounding, ball handling, shooting because I knew that to be able to play this year and get back to where we were last year and to play in college I knew I needed to step it up and be able to complete my game and do everything,” Alex Tudor said. “I really worked on that and Coach Murphy and Coach Robino have been a big help with that and they’ve really noticed it too. It’s enjoyable to see it all come together and I feel like a more polished player.”
With a precarious fourpoint lead at the half Shenendehowa coach Joe Murphy challenged his players to put Shaker away.
“Just be more aggressive on the glass, that was the biggest thing, rebound the basketball,” Joe Murphy said. “We came out and rebounded the basketball, obviously we hit some shots, but we said control the glass and I think our depth helped us tonight.
“They played probably six kids in the first half, maybe a seventh for a little bit, we probably rolled out eight, nine kids, 10 kids in the first half. Even for a minute or so, gives a kid a break, we had a little bit fresher legs in the second half.”
While the Plainsmen exploded, the Bison wilted, exactly what Beaudoin wanted to avoid.
“We had a great first half, we go into halftime with the idea that they’re up by 10 and thinking that we’re going to go away, but we can make it a four-point game at halftime,” Beaudoin said. “Probably what I shouldn’t have said was ‘Let’s not go out there and lay a goose egg in the third quarter,’ but unfortunately that’s what happened.”
Shenendehowa’s Megan Gillooley cleaned the glass, adding 10 rebounds and Lemoyne-bound Cameron Tooley had her own double-double, 15 points and dished out 10 assists.