By SPENCER BATES
ALLEGANY — The last time the Salamanca and Allegany-Limestone girls basketball teams met, the former ran away with the affair.
The Warriors claimed a 19-point, 61-42, win at home over the Gators in the second game of their 4-0 start to CCAA Div. I play. But although the game was just shy of a month ago, the memory of the loss stuck in the minds of the A-L players, and in round two they brought the fight.
After a slow start that saw them fall behind 10-0, the Gators turned up the heat in their gym and came close to erasing their deficit at numerous times throughout the contest. However, the Warriors remained composed and each time successfully repelled their hosts, claiming a 52-43 win and the season sweep of A-L.
“We knew, right after our home game against them, that the expectation was going to be different at their place,” Salamanca head coach Joe Hinman said. “(Allegany-Limestone) is a hard place to play in general, but especially against a league opponent, you never know what you’re gonna get. We definitely got their best shot tonight. We didn’t really make it easy on ourselves with fouls, missed free throws, we just kind of shot ourselves in the foot here and there. But we stuck it out. I’m proud of the resilience, hanging in there and toughing it out. It was a nice win for us.”
The A-L offense had its struggles seeing the ball through the hoop from the floor early, with four of its six first quarter points coming from the free throw line. But when the offense in the half court wasn’t working, head coach Andrea Darrow opted to apply the pressure.
This is when the Gators came to life. A handful of turnovers and fast break points the other way provided the team with a spark.
“I think, really in our last few games, our defense has really stepped it up a notch,” Darrow said. “I told the girls in the locker room to take away that first quarter. I feel like we went backwards on defense for that one quarter, they got up to a 10-0 lead. After that quarter, we got back into being able to help so that they couldn’t drive so much. We had hands up in the paint, they had to shoot over us. So really, I think it was our defense that’s been building,”
Hinman had to give credit where it was due. He admitted the A-L pressure took his team out of their comfort zone, which led to botched possessions and the erasure of leads they had built.
“We couldn’t really get in a rhythm with our transition offense,” Hinman said. “They were slowing us down and making it hard for us to get into our offense. In the half court, we were struggling to find the looks, and when we did have a look, it was a rushed shot, it was getting away from the fundamental basketball that we preach. We just have to sharpen up some things moving into our last few games.”
That being said, he noted the leads they nearly conceded were also in part due to mistakes they made, unprompted. But with the A-L defense hounding them, the mistakes they made were punished all the more severely.
“I think it was kind of both, our mistakes, and (A-L) picking it up more,” Hinman said. “On defense, they really took it to us, and I don’t think at times we were cutting hard enough, like we should be, and they were taking advantage of that. Our offense was slowed down, and we couldn’t really get a rhythm. So props to them for knocking us out of our tempo.”
The sides went back and forth over the course of the final three quarters. Salamanca would build a comfortable lead, then A-L would bring it right back to within a couple possessions.
Allegany-Limestone’s Kai Wojewoda-Ko (10) puts up a floater against Salamanca. Wojewoda-Ko scored six points for the Gators. (Spencer Bates)
Fortunately for Hinman and his Warriors, the duo of Makenzie Crouse and Ella Crouse put the team on their shoulders late and carried them over the line.
“Kenzie is our leader out there on both sides of the ball,” Hinman said. “She got a little frustrated tonight, but she was able to fight through it. We always expect her to go out and give it everything she has, not just for herself, but for her teammates too. Ella is really stepping up. It’s nice to have some shooters, that’s one thing I think we’ve been lacking in the last few years. We finally have some shooters, Liana (Jimerson), Maliyah (Foster), Ella, our offense is able to spread out. So it’s good to see those two stepping up in big moments. And we expect that from everybody else too.”
Ella Crouse led Salamanca with a game-high 23 points, 12 of which came in the fourth quarter. Makenzie Crouse had the next highest tally on the team with eight points.
Despite the loss, Darrow was positive. Specifically, she gave her team their flowers for fighting until the bitter end, executing on set plays and getting to the free throw line to give themselves a chance to pull off the comeback.
“We were so proud of that effort,” Darrow said. “We had to do the same thing last week in Fredonia. When they needed to, they put in all that effort. They executed what we put in. We had a lot of stop-and-go there at the end, but they went out and they did what we needed to do to attempt to win that game.”
Salamanca will return home for its next game, set for Feb. 5 at 7:30 p.m. against Fredonia.
As for Allegany-Limestone, it will be a quick turnaround, as it faces Cameron County in a non-league affair at the Reilly Center on Feb. 3 at 6 p.m.
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AT ALLEGANY
Salamanca (52)
E. Crouse 5 9-11 23, M. Crouse 1 6-11 8, Foster 2 2-2 7, Ross 2 0-0 4, Jimerson 1 1-4 4, Wass 2 0-0 4, Galante 0 2-2 2. Totals: 13 20-32 52
Allegany-Limestone (43)
Kahm 4 7-10 17, Hayes 2 4-5 9, Giardini 3 0-0 6, Wojewoda-Ko 2 2-2 6, John 1 0-0 3, Frederick 0 2-2 2. Totals: 12 15-19 43
Sala 15 22 35 52
A-L 6 15 28 43
Three-point goals: Sala 6 (E. Crouse 4, Jimerson, Foster), A-L 4 (Kahm 2, John, Hayes); Total fouls: Sala 20, A-L 22; Fouled out: Wass (Sala), Foster (Sala).
