Fast start lifts Spartans past Lakers
Feb. 13—CONNEAUT — The Pymatuning Valley Lakers scored the first 10 points on its way to a 62-39 on the road Saturday against the Conneaut Spartans in girls basketball action.
Junior Alaina Neczeporenko scored 18 points on 7-for-13 shooting to lead the Lakers and senior Ellie Struna added 10 points and 10 rebounds. Freshman Zoey Painter had seven points.
Conneaut had two players in double figures with freshman Bella Fix and junior Laney Pasanen each scoring 10 points.
PV improved to 14-8 after the non-conference win, while Conneaut dropped to 4-14 with the loss.
The Lakers never trailed and held the Spartans scoreless until 2:19 remaining in the first quarter when Conneaut sophomore Kayla Farley made a free throw. PVy took a 19-4 lead into the second quarter.
A 13-1 run then gave the Lakers their biggest advantage of the game with a 27-point lead at 32-5. The Spartans closed the half with a 9-2 run to make it 34-16 at halftime.
PV coach Geena Gabriel said her team had a little trouble before the first half ended keeping up the intensity with a big lead, but the team talked at halftime about getting 50-50 balls and winning all four quarters and that led to a solid effort in the second half.
"Alaina Neczeporenko really shined tonight, we always tell her she's one of our better shooters and I think they were falling for her, so I think she finally started to realize how good she really was, and she let them fly and they fell for her," Gabriel said." I really think that is what kept the team kind of going is her making those buckets that really held us together and pulled us through."
Conneaut coach Tom Ritari said for the most part he was happy with his team's effort.
"PV is a really good team and Neczeporenko really knocked it down tonight," Ritari said. We couldn't get to her very well and she shot the ball extremely well."
He said the Spartans played better in the second half after the Lakers dropped their pressure defense.
"So we were able to move the ball up the floor a lot easier without having turnover issues and that's what we struggled with," Ritari said. "When we turn the ball over, obviously we're not getting shots.
"We had a lineup toward the end of the game and end of the half that had a lot of energy, and they can really make some things happen. That's what we're looking for."
PV is slated to start Division III sectional tournament action against Crestview at home on Wednesday night.
Conneaut is scheduled to play at Northwestern tonight in a regular-season contest.
