By DYLAN O’LOUGHLIN
LE ROY, N.Y. — Eighth grader Alicia Wood dropped a game-high 21 points with 11 coming in the second half to pace the Keshequa Wildcats past the Leroy Oatkan Knights 75-35. Up 35-20 at halftime, the Wildcats outscored LeRoy 21-4 in the third quarter with Wood leading the way with seven to put the game away.
“I think we started making some shots that we normally make, that we were missing,” Keshequa head coach Pete Piraino said. “We missed quite a few layups in the first half. We were missing foul shots and I think we just started making some of them. I didn’t have any great speech to tell them, they knew they wanted to play better than what they were playing. But LeRoy came out, they were hustling, battling without girls on their team and they did a great job. They made us play hard.”
To start the game, it was a back-and-forth affair. Wood started the scoring with a quick deuce, but LeRoy answered back with two fast buckets of its own as the Oatkan Knights capitalized off turnovers to take a 4-2 lead. That would be the only lead LeRoy had on the night.
As the first quarter started to wind down tied at 13 apiece, Keshequa picked up its defensive intensity and caused multiple turnovers in a row to go on a 6-0 run to end the first quarter and take a 19-13 lead. Five different players scored in the quarter for the Wildcats as Wood and sophomore Ryley Benner led the way with six points apiece.
In the second quarter, the defense turned into offense for Keshequa. Hounding defense created a lot of steals for the Wildcats along with sloppy turnovers from the Oatkan Knights. Keshequa held LeRoy to just seven points in the quarter while the Wildcats scored 16 in the frame led by sophomore guard Braelyn Isaman with six points. She had her hand in the cookie jar multiple times to create more offensive possessions.
“Our coach is all about defense,” Isaman said. “Defense wins games and hard work on defense helps us play as a team, get the ball up the court and win the game.”
In the third quarter, Wood took over. Four different scorers left their mark on the scoreboard in the frame as Wood led the way. It all started with the defense as Keshequa opened up the quarter on a 6-0 run until it was stopped by LeRoy freshman guard Kylie Wilson with a fastbreak layup. The Wildcats then poured in 13 straight unanswered points with Wood tallying five in that stretch until LeRoy got its second and final bucket of the quarter.
The eighth grader took advantage of her size down low as the LeRoy bigs’ were out due to sickness.
“I’ve been really working on my paint touches and putting the ball up strong,” Wood said. “Some of my shots weren’t falling, but I just wanted to keep posting up, taking my time and getting the ball in the net.”
In the final quarter, it was much of the same. Leading the way was senior Ava Thayer as she netted eight points in the quarter including two triples. LeRoy’s Sierra Burk kept pace with Keshequa in the final eight minutes as she tallied seven points in the frame, but it was too little to late. The Wildcats outscored the Oatkan Knights 14-10 to solidify the win.
For Keshequa, Wood tallied four rebounds to go along with her 21 points while Isaman accounted for 15 points and six assists. Ryley Benner added 13 points, five steals and three assists while Thayer picked up 10 points, eight assists and five steals. Riley Nageldinger almost grabbed a double-double as she ended with 11 points and eight rebounds while Bree Benner rounded out the scoring with five points all in the first half.
On LeRoy’s side, Burk led the way with a team-high 19 points including 10 in the first half while Wilson reached double-digits with 10 points. Bailey Caton (4) and Izabelle Farrell (2) completed the Oatkan Knight’s scoring.
“When I feel hot, I’ll shoot it,” Burk said. “If it falls, it falls. I’m not going to stop myself from shooting and when my teammates are hot I’m going to pass them the ball to shoot.”
With the win, Keshequa increase its win streak to 15 and third straight by 40-plus points. The Wildcats improve to 17-1 as Keshequa remains top three in Class C in New York. Keshequa looks to keep this momentum going as the Wildcats host Wellsville Friday, February 14 at 5:30 p.m. With only two games left in the season, the mentality is starting to shift for sectionals.
“Well we have two really good teams we’re playing in Wellsville and Dansville,” Piraino said. “They’re class B teams that got good records so what’s nice is we know we have to play and have to play hard to compete with them. So, there’s no let down or anything like that, it will help us get ready for sectionals.”
On the other hand, LeRoy falls to 10-7 and moves ahead to Wednesday, February 12 as the Oatkan Knights play host to Mount Morris at 6 p.m.
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