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Selke’s shooting, Kamm’s interior presence key Honeoye Falls-Lima win

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Hannah Selke (L), Teagan Kamm (R). (Photos: BILLY HEYEN)

By BILLY HEYEN

HONEOYE FALLS, N.Y. — There was nothing surer Thursday night than a Hannah Selke shot from the left corner.

Five times, the Honeoye Falls-Lima senior let fly from that spot on the floor beyond the arc, and five times, the ball dropped through the net.

“I always seem to go to the corner, and I always end up hitting a bunch there, and I just stick to it,” Selke said.

Selke’s 15 points were joined by three other Cougars in double figures (Teagan Kamm’s 14, Olivia Friedlander’s 11 and Mari Spitz’s 10) in a 64-50 win over Batavia on Thursday night. Just as they had opening night, Selke and Kamm keyed the Honeoye Falls-Lima offense as a dangerous outside-inside combination. The win moved HF-L to 2-0 on the season ahead of a highly anticipated matchup with Pittsford Mendon on Saturday. 

“We talked about getting off to a quick start,” HF-L head coach Steve Willoughby said, “because Mendon’s coming quick on Saturday.” 

Selke and Kamm led the Cougars in scoring a year ago and in their opener Monday night, but proceedings got underway Thursday with some Friedlander buckets.

First, Friedlander drove baseline before euro-stepping around her defender for a layup. Then, she nailed a 3 from Selke’s favorite left corner, and Friedlander drove again shortly after for a bucket. She scored the Cougars’ first seven points to grab the lead.

“(Friedlander’s) kind of an unknown hero,” Willoughby said.

That’s about when Selke hit her first 3-pointer of the night. Clare Ruff drove into the paint before kicking out to Selke for the swished triple.

It’s not an accident that Selke wound up with open shots from the symmetrical spot in each left corner five times total, twice in the first half and three times after the break. She’s the ideal floor spacer for the Cougars, the player that Batavia yelled “shooter” about every time she cut baseline. On five occasions, Selke proved the Blue Devils correct.

“We want her to touch the ball on the reversals,” Willoughby said. “… She did a great job.”

The danger presented by Selke, Friedlander and Spitz outside allowed Kamm to dominate the paint, as is the norm. There’s nothing flashy about Kamm’s game — just good touch around the basket and continued pursuit of the basketball at 6-foot-1. 

Selke knew that once she started hitting shots, things would open up for Kamm, who had 10 points by halftime and finished with 14, 14 rebounds and three blocks.

“If they’re guarding me, then (Kamm’s) wide open,” Selke said, “So it works out really well.”

The Cougars coupled an efficient offense with a specialty defensive gameplan Thursday night. Batavia’s Kenzie Reigle and Bryn Wormley are one of Section V’s best one-two punches, so HF-L broke out box-and-one and triangle-and-two defenses to slow them down. A defender apiece played man-to-man on the Blue Devils’ two stars with zone help behind.

Reigle and Wormley still wiggled free on occasion to put up solid numbers on the evening — 18 points and seven assists for the lefty point guard Reigle and nine points for the wing Wormley. But despite not a ton of time to implement the defensive scheme, HF-L thought it got the desired result.

“Kenzie and Bryn are good, but I think we got the job done with it,” Kamm said. 

In some ways, Thursday’s game served as an appetizer for HF-L. The Cougars beat Greece Olympia on opening night with a dominating first quarter and cruise control the rest of the way. Things were a bit trickier against Batavia because Reigle refused to go quietly, but in the end, HF-L won again.

Up next is Pittsford Mendon, which ended the 2019 season with a win in the state championship and the 2020 campaign with a win in the sectional title game. Section V’s Class A girls basketball teams of late have been forced to measure themselves against the Vikings, who won Thursday at Churchville to move to 2-0.

HF-L gets a chance Saturday to prove it’s a true contender in this shortened 2021 season. With Selke nailing her triples, Kamm dominating inside and the rest of the Cougars’ rotation making winning plays, Honeoye Falls-Lima feels it has a chance.

“We can stick with it,” Selke said. “I think we have a shot.”

Scoring totals

Honeoye Falls-Lima: Hannah Selke (15), Teagan Kamm (14), Olivia Friedlander (11), Mari Spitz (10), Beth Pangia (8), Alice Russo (6)

Batavia: Kenzie Reigle (18), Bryn Wormley (9), Kennedy Kolb (8), Tess Barone (6), Haylee Thornley (4), Mackenzie Harmon (2), Tianna Rhim (2), Bella Houseknecht (1)

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