Pickin' Splinters

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Bree finds shooting touch in time to lead Waterloo rally

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Addison Bree connected on three triples and scored 11 of her 17 points in the fourth quarter as Waterloo rallied for a 60-53 victory over host Gananda. (Photo: PAUL GOTHAM)

By PAUL GOTHAM

MACEDON, N.Y. — Sometimes a good shooter just needs to see the ball go through the basket one time to find a rhythm.

In Addison Bree’s case on Saturday, it was a matter of contributing to a bucket that sparked the Waterloo sophomore.

After struggling through the first three quarters where misses outnumbered makes, Bree drew a pair of defenders on the second possession of the fourth quarter and dished a pass to teammate Hannah Harris for an easy layup.

Waterloo, which had trailed by as many as 14 points, had its first lead of the game.

And Bree wasn’t about to let that advantage slip away.

“I had to get out of my own head,” she said of the early shooting woes. “That’s what happens. I get in my own head. I just had to play the game.”

The 5-foot-8 guard buried 3-pointers on the next two trips down the floor to pace an 11-0 run, and the Tigers were on their way to a 60-53 victory.

She connected once more from distance in the final frame and scored 11 of her 17 points over the last eight minutes.

“I always like to set up my teammates and move the ball especially when I’m not hitting,” Bree said. “I feel like I have to get it to my teammates, and that assist helped get us started.”

A month ago, Bree wasn’t in the lineup. A dislocated knee cap sidelined her for the first month of the season. The leading returning scorer (11.6 PPG) from last year’s NYSPHSAA and Federation Class B champions watched as a Waterloo roster which includes four ninth-graders, two sophomores and a junior without any seniors, lost three of five games at one point.

This for a program which finished 28-1 in 2022-23 as part of a 68-2 record over the three previous seasons.

Saturday’s win was the third in the past four games for Waterloo (8-6).

“This is a really young group,” said Waterloo head coach Mike Bree (Addison’s dad). “We’ve battled that a lot this year. I think we’re starting to play the way we’re capable of.”

The younger Bree finished with five 3-pointers on the day part of an overall effort that saw Waterloo hit 11 triples in the game.

“We tell them to keep shooting,” Mike Bree said. “We know we can make a lot of shots. That’s kinda what we hang our hats on.

“Every team we play they know they want to take away the three, but you have to pick which ones you’re going to take away.”

Early on, it looked like Gananda might run away with the game.

Nyah Cruz scored twice. Eva Jenny added a basket and then set up Katie Rothwell for the first of two buckets.

In the blink of an eye, Gananda led 10-0.

“I don’t know if they realize what varsity basketball is all about to start games,” Mike Bree said. “I’m not a coach that likes to take early timeouts, but I had to take one or two early ones to say ‘Look, there’s still X-amount of minutes in this game. You guys will hit shots, just keep playing the way the way that we typically play.’”

Maddie Dohse’s rebound and putback gave Gananda (10-2) its largest lead of the day at 18-4 with less than three minutes remaining in the first quarter.

Waterloo cut deficit to five to start the second frame.

“They can score quickly, and they can score in bunches,” said Gananda head coach Karin Meuwissen. “They have shooters everywhere. It’s very difficult to matchup.”

Gwyneth Panek scored nine straight for Waterloo to make it a 21-16 game.

Gananda led 35-29 at halftime.

Panek’s catch-and-shoot three less than three minutes into the third cut the margin to one.

Twice at the end of the frame, Bree had chances to give Waterloo the lead. She missed a layup then was off on an attempt from long range.

“It’s been a struggle for her this year,” Mike Bree said. “The conditioning and the speed is not back yet. That knee brace she’s wearing really inhibits a lot of movement. When she gets on, you can’t find a better shooter. She played a fantastic fourth quarter.”

Panek led all scorers with 25 points.

Gananda’s Jenny had 21.

Gananda (No. 4 NYSSWA Class C) had won five straight games heading into Saturday’s action.

“Their press started to bother us,” Meuwissen said. “We got a little bit turnover happy when we got the ball into the half-court. We struggled to score at times. We started to drive and get out of our routine. That was a good lesson for us to learn today.”

WATERLOO
Addison Bree 5 2-2 17, Gwyneth Panek 9 5-8 25, Tangle Williams 3 2-2 9, Maci Mueller 1 2-2 5, Khia Moody 0 0-0 0, Delainey Battin 0 0-2 0, Hannah Harris 1 0-0 2 TOTALS 19 11-16 60

GANANDA
Leah Buffan 1 0-0 3, Nyah Cruz 4 0-2 8, Eva Jenny 4 12-18 21, Katie Rothwell 4 0-1 8, Nicole Cruz 1 0-2 2, Maddie Dohse 3 1-2 9, Ava VanAntwerp 1 0-6 2 TOTALS 18 13-31 53

WATERLOO 16 13 12 19 — 60
GANANDA 21 14 7 11 — 53

3-point goals — Waterloo 11 (Bree 5, Panek 4, Williams 1, Mueller 1); Gananda 4 (Buffan 1, Jenny 1, Dohse 2)

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