By SPENCER BATES
SALAMANCA — While it was far from the cleanest game the No. 2 seed Salamanca girls basketball team had played this season, it still managed to grab a comfortable 68-40 win over No. 7 seed Royalton-Hartland in the Section 6 Class B2 Quarterfinals.
The Warriors and Rams both had their struggles with fouls throughout the course of the game, combining for 38 infractions. Luckily for the former, its “next man up” mentality was able to carry them to a sectional semifinal.
But still, the amount of fouling that occurred is not something that Salamanca coach Joe Hinman wants to see carry through into his team’s next game.
“It was just a foul fest early on,” Hinman said. “We were just trying to keep girls out of foul trouble and it was ‘next man up’ off the bench. So overall, it was a balanced attack from us offensively, but we just got to clean up the fouls. Especially moving into the later rounds (of the playoffs) you just got to make fewer mistakes.”
That mentality of the Warriors culminated into nine different players getting onto the scoresheet in a game that it managed to take control of in the early minutes, despite the fouls.
“Everyone stepped up, that’s the thing about this team, everyone contributes in one way or another, offensively, defensively, giving us good energy,” Hinman said. “Whatever it is, there’s always someone that’s going to step up and give us what we need at the right time.”
Leading the charge for the Warriors in the scoring department was Leilene McComber, who finished with a game-high 19 points. However, a good deal of her points did not come until after she got herself in some foul trouble. Fortunately, Hinman was able to get through to her and the rest of his team at the intermission, at which point they led 30-18, and in the second half, he was left much happier with how his team operated without drawing a whistle.
“When Leilene is under control, she’s arguably one of the hardest players to stop in the league, in the section, in the class,” Hinman said. “Once she gets going, she’s hard to stop, but the idea is just to get her composed (and) under control. Our message in the second half to her and to the rest of the team was to stay disciplined, we got a lot of game left to finish and everyone’s got to play clean basketball. We ended up cleaning up, and we pulled away pretty easily in the second half.”
Salamanca’s Kynleigh Wass (2) attempts a mid-range jump shot over a Royalton-Hartland defender. Wass scored nine points for the Warriors against the Rams on March 1. (Salamanca Warrior Athletics)
While the Warriors struggled against the whistle on the defensive end, on offense they received a big boost from that same whistle as they shot 31 free throws as a team. The most of which were attempted by McComber (11) and Makenzie Crouse (10). The latter, Hinman regarded as a luxury the team has been able to lean on with her ability to clean the glass and get second chance opportunities.
“Every game that we’ve been in has been so physical, and having Kenzie just continuously battling for every single rebound is huge,” Hinman said. “She’s a force down low when she’s going after the ball. She’s huge for us underneath.”
Crouse finished with 12 points, the game’s second-highest tally.
Salamanca managed to keep its offense rolling at a much cleaner tick throughout the second half, bringing the result over the line and simultaneously punching its ticket to the next round in which it will face No. 3 seed Eden at 6:30 p.m. on March 4 at Maryvale High School. And although the win was not as pretty as Hinman may have wanted it to be, and while there will be plenty to sharpen ahead of the team’s next game, he noted that the overall goal and game plan will remain the same.
“Our identity just stays the same, it’s just about bringing that energy and effort each game,” Hinman said. “I told the girls, it’s one game at a time from here on out. Our goal is still a sectional title, and we got another game to go before we reach that final. So, we just got to stay focused and dialed in on the plan.”
AT SALAMANCA
Royalton-Hartland (40)
Aquilina 3 4-6 10, Mettler 4 0-0 9, Dukes 2 3-6 7, May 2 2-7 6, Owens 2 0-0 5, McOmber 1 1-2 3. Totals: 14 10-21 40
Salamanca (68)
McComber 7 5-11 19, Crouse 4 3-10 12, Dowdy 4 1-2 11, Wass 3 3-6 9, Foster 2 2-2 8, Simerson 1 0-0 3, Lafferty 1 0-0 2, Stahlman 1 0-0 2, Galante 1 0-2 2. Totals: 24 14-31 68
R-H 4 18 27 40
Sala. 14 30 52 68Three-point goals: R-H 2 (Mettler, Owens), Sala. 6 (Dowdy 2, Foster 2, Crouse, Simerson); Total fouls: R-H 19, Sala. 19; fouled out: None.
