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The West Geauga girls basketball team had one of its best efforts of the season this past week as the Wolverines had an emphatic 54-31 victory over Berkshire at West Geauga High School.
The Wolverines held a 20-13 lead at the half, but that quickly grew as West G scored the first 11 points of the third quarter. That run pushed the Wolverines’ lead to 31-13, and they were never challenged again.
West G coach Cheryl Rye said the Wolverines put it all together against the Badgers.
“This was our best overall game start to finish,” Rye said. “Other games we’d have a good half, but this was our best game from start to finish.”
The victory upped West G’s record to 5-9, while Berkshire dropped to 4-11.
West G senior captain Hanna Zuzek talked about the big victory.
“As a team, we have very good chemistry,” Zuzek said. “Once we got it down, we were on a roll. We really talked and communicated. We used each other.
“We feel more confident when we get points on the board.”
Overall, it was a dominant third quarter for the Wolverines as they outscored the Badgers 23-9 and forced 10 Berkshire turnovers.
“That was by far our best quarter coming out of a half,” Rye said. “We wanted to have a 15-point lead. We really wanted to come out strong. The girls really responded well.”
Zuzek agreed with her coach.
“At the beginning of the year we had a difficult time having good third quarters,” Zuzek said. “We want to come out strong and keep the momentum. We felt great. It was one of our better games, honestly. We communicated very well and we ran the offense. I’m proud of the team.”
Berkshire coach Dennis Lory said the third quarter was what did in the Badgers, especially at the start.
“They came out and were more aggressive and physical then we were,” Lory said. “We didn’t have the energy we needed.”
Turnovers were the main issue for the Badgers all night; they finished with 30 compared to 17 for the Wolverines. In both the second and third quarters, the Badgers had more turnovers than points.
The Wolverines played 2-3 and 1-3-1 zone defense the majority of the night, which gave the Badgers problems.
“We’re not a particularly good outside shooting team,” Lory said. “We like to get to the basket. We made a lot of bad ball decisions. You’re not going to win many basketball games like that.”
Rye credited assistant coach Julie Kless with suggesting a switch to more zone defense.
“The last couple of games we got beat on the ball more then I like,” Rye said. “We have to find out what we do well defensively. Julie did a great job.”
Offensively, the Wolverines didn’t have a single player score more then eight points, but 10 overall scored, with five netting either seven or eight points.
Zuzek had the best all-around game for West G with eight points, eight rebounds, five assists and four steals. Next, Lindsey Stanforth had eight points with five rebounds and five steals, while Hannah Brinning had eight points and four rebounds. Regina Ziccardi and Jenna Kijauskas both knocked in seven.
Berkshire was led by Sarah Luoma, who had a game-high 10 points, while Kayla White scored eight with seven rebounds.
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