By STEVE BRICKLER
PENFIELD, N.Y. — Victor led from start to finish and held off a late Penfield rally to earn a 53-46 victory in a key Monroe County Division I matchup at Penfield. Victor (12-1) won the first matchup as well by a 43-40 margin.
The Blue Devils jumped out to a quick start, taking a 5-0 lead on a free throw by Devin Livingston and two-point buckets by Abbie Murphy and Rhylin Fehrenbach. Victor used a combination of full court pressure and tight man-to-man defense to prevent the Patriots from getting easy looks at the basket.
“We know they really like to get in the paint, utilize the post and the drive so we really focused on gapping and having each other’s help on either side and then getting that first rebound and boxing out,” said Victor Coach Ashley Zahn of her team’s defensive strategy.
Penfield cut the lead to 8-7 but a Livingston triple gave the Blue Devils an11-7 edge at quarter’s end.
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Victor opened up the second quarter on an 8-2 run to take a ten-point lead. Livingston and Hope Stone contributed two points each while Fehrenbach added four. Throughout the remainder of the quarter, Penfield would cut into the lead only to have the Blue Devils have an answer to keep the margin near double digits. The half ended with Victor ahead 27-18 with Fehrenbach scoring 9 of her 11 points in the opening half.
After a quick bucket by Penfield’s Lena Lipani to start the second half, Victor embarked on another 8-2 run to open up a 13-point lead. Stone and Allie Pisano each netted four points during the run.
Again, Victor’s defense was the catalyst for the offense.
“That’s how we get our start,” Said Zahn. “We feed off our defense.”
Victor led by as many as 14 in the third quarter, but Penfield closed the quarter on a 6-2 run to pull within ten at 42-32, a precursor to what was to come in the fourth quarter.
Victor’s Vanessa Chumacero began the final quarter sinking 2-of-3 free throws. After that, the Patriots mounted a furious 12-2 rally that pulled them within a bucket at 46-44 with just over a minute to play.
Emma Alexander sparked the run with a triple and scored five of her team-high 12 points in this span. Ashley Kalvitis added four of her six points on the night, including a mid-range jumper to pull the Patriots within one possession. Mary Bernat added a free throw and Cassidy Cone contributed a bucket in the run as well.
Penfield’s defense forced Victor turnovers to get themselves back in the game including a shot clock violation with 1:39 to play that led to the Kalvitis bucket to make it a two-point game.
Victor was able to respond down the stretch by calmly going 7-7 from the line in the last minute of play to pull away for the final margin. Fehrenbach hit the first two, followed by two from Chumacero. Lipani added two in the paint for Penfield before Livingston closed out the game with three more free throws (a lane violation preventing a fourth) for Victor.
Livingston finished with a game- high 14 points on the night.
“I had some veteran players, some were young but I consider them veteran players, where they know at the end of the game, they listen well, they execute, they stay composed and they did a fabulous job,” said Zahn.”It was a great team win. All eleven, what people don’t see is us in practice. All of them making it hard on each other and pushing each other, that’s why we perform the way we do.”
Aside from Alexander’s 12 points, the Patriots got scoring contributions from Cone (9), Bernat (7), Lipani and Kalvitis (6 each), Reegan Sercu (4) and Audriana Funk (2). Penfield (7-6) travels to Webster Schroeder on Tuesday.
Victor got scoring contributions from Stone (8), Pisano (7), Murphy (6), Chumacero (4) and Morgan Livingston with three to go along with the 14 and 11 from Devin Livingston and Fehrenbach respectively. The Blue Devils travel to Fairport, also on Tuesday of next week.
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