Minus star player, Tartans rally past South Glens Falls
SOUTH GLENS FALLS — Cassie Broadhead, one of the top players in Section II, sat on the sidelines as her Scotia Tartans traveled to South Glens Falls Thursday night for a Foothills Council tilt.
Unfortunately for the host Bulldogs, the visitors did just fine without their star.
Picking up some of the load left by the injured standout, Scotia sophomore Nicole Conley scored 29 points as the Tartans came from behind to knock off South Glens Falls 44-33. The Bulldogs led by seven at the half, but were dominated in the last 16 minutes of play.
“We came out a little flat today,” South Glens Falls head coach Jack Celeste
said. “We had a rough game on Monday, and I thought we’d come out with a little more firepower today. We just couldn’t get ourselves going.”
The hosts came out playing excellent defense. Buoyed by two 3-pointers over Scotia’s 2- 3 zone in the first quarter, the Bulldogs built an 11- 6 lead after the opening period. That lead got bigger with an 8- 2 South Glens Falls run just before the half, and the Bulldogs went into the intermission up 19-12.
“We had good ball movement,” Celeste said. “I thought the teamwork was good, as far as moving the ball around. We didn’t have good ball movement in our last game, so I was happy with that.”
However, Scotia got rolling in the third stanza, as an 11-2 spurt gave the Tartans a 23-21 edge late in the quarter. South Glens Falls scored baskets on back-to-back pos- sessions to regain the lead, but Conley promptly drained a jumper in the final seconds to tie the game heading into the fourth quarter.
That was only the beginning for Conley, who scored the first six points of the final period. The Bulldogs closed to within four points with 3: 59 remaining, but the Tartans answered with a 10-2 run that put the game away.
“We didn’t play our game, and Scotia ran a good defense against us,” Celeste said. “We had a hard time with it.”
Kasey O’Brien had 10 points to lead the Bulldogs, who dropped to 2-2 on the season with the loss. Reigning Saratogian Athlete of the Week Alexis Smith added eight points and two assists.
“The season’s far from over,” Celeste said. “We’ve just got to get our heads together, regroup a little bit, and focus. We play everyone at least once, some teams twice, and we still control our own fate. We just need to stay together and keep working hard.”
South Glens Falls returns to action with their holiday tournament next Friday and Saturday. Meanwhile, Scotia goes to Troy for a huge Class A matchup on Saturday night.