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Girls Basketball: East Aurora shuts down Batavia
Updated: December 6, 2011 9:38PM
East Aurora girls basketball coach William Anderson preaches effort and attitude to his team, particularly on the defensive end.
That was on display all night in Tuesday’s 44-38 nonconference win over Batavia, particularly in the first half.
The Tomcats put together a stretch of more than 10 straight minutes where they held Batavia without a point, turning a 10-7 deficit into a 23-10 lead and taking control of the game.
“I believe it was team effort, effort and attitude as coach always preaches to us,” East Aurora senior Marta Medina said. “Your effort has to be 100 percent and you have to have the right attitude when you step on the court. The whole team was in unison and we held it together.”
Medina, Myrene Reyes and Tyshee Towner each scored four points as part of that 16-0 run for the Tomcats (4-5). Batavia coach Kevin Jensen was forced to pull his entire starting lineup at one time to try to stop the bleeding.
Heather Anderson, Grace Andrews, Abbey McCabe, Jenny Welday and Mariah Zwart, none of whom saw action in the first quarter, came on when East Aurora’s lead reached 23-10.
That group did provide a spark, ending the half on a 7-2 run to cut the lead to a more manageable 25-17.
“I basically said I was sorry to them because I should have played them more,” Jensen said. “They played harder than anyone else all night. I attribute it to those five girls. They played hard and gave us a spark. I feel like I should have played them more.”
Batavia (4-5) cut it 32-26 with 2:20 left in the third quarter, only to see Medina score six of her game-high 17 points to end the third and push the lead back out. Miranda Grizaffi drilled a pair of three-pointers to start the fourth for the Bulldogs to help cut the lead to 38-34, but they would get no closer as East Aurora salted the game away.
“We’ve been in that situation a little bit too much for my liking,” Jensen said. “We use poor play and have to scramble to get back when if we would have just played mediocre or a little bit above average, we would have been fine and right there in it at the end of the game.”
East Aurora welcomes high-powered Bartlett to town Thursday, so Anderson is hoping that his team can continue to give the effort they gave Tuesday in that game.
“We’ve been talking about that, making sure that we take a little pride in what we do at home,” Anderson said. “Bartlett is coming in here in a couple of days, a very good team. We can’t control Bartlett. We have to control what we’re able to do.”
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