The Eastwick Press Newspaper

Eastern Rensselaer County's Community Newspaper

Hoosier Holiday Basketball Tourney – Panther Girls Win First Hoop Game Of Season In Opener

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by Gary Danforth
The Hoosick Falls Central School Panther varsity girls basketball team won their first game of the 2009-10 season last Monday evening, December 28, when they registered a convincing 49-33 win over Berlin Central School in the opening round of the Hoosier Holiday Basketball Tournament. Kerry Branningan’s Panther five used a quick trigger offense and ball hawking defense to get their first win in six outings. HFCS is 0-3 in WASAREN League play.
Berlin took a 2-0 lead before HFCS broke out to an 8-2 advantage on a Jen Priore trey and a layup and three-pointer by Frankie Pearson. BCS got to 8-5 before the Panthers took a 12-6 lead at the first quarter break. HFCS ran off an 8-0 spurt to begin the second period to push their lead to 20-6 with 4:22 left in the opening half. Pearson, a freshman, hit a runner and two free throws while seniors Samantha Skott and Priore hit field goals in the Panther spurt. HFCS led 23-13 at the half.
Pearson scored two Panther field goals to open period three before Priore canned a trey, scored off the Panther fast break, with an assist from Pearson, and hit two free throws, good for a 33-17 HFCS lead. Alyssa Schneider hit a right corner jumper, Skott hit two foul shots and Schneider scored again to push the Panther lead to 39-20. Hoosick Falls led 39-22 heading into the final eight minutes.
Berlin opened period four with an 8-0 run to close to 39-30 before a Skott jumper and an Erin Shea free throw gave HFCS a 42-32 lead with 2:46 to play. Priore hit back to back treys and Emily Wilwol canned a free throw to close out the Panthers 49-33 win.
Priore with 18 points, Pearson, 13, Schneider, 6, Skott, 6, Shelby Jones, 4, Shea, 1, and Wilwol with 1 point scored for HFCS while Kayla Hawk with 12 points and Victoria Muller with 11 led Berlin scorers.
Rebounding from Afar: HFCS looked like a bunch of Wild West gunslingers as they took and made some good shots to record their first win of the year. As former deceased Greenwich boys basketball Coach John Traver once told me, “I see teams take the same shots in the last five or six seconds of the shot clock which they could have got in the first seven or eight seconds of the shot clock.” He knew, as his GCS boys teams won 419 games over 30 seasons.