From last season’s 9-10 mark, the Marcellus girls basketball team has targeted 2012-13 as a chance to go after a winning record, at least.
Through a week, though, the Mustangs were still at .500, helped by last Friday night’s 93-16 victory over Jordan-Elbridge that produced one of the highest point totals in the history of the Marcellus girls basketball program.
At the end of the first quarter, Marcellus led 28-0. The Eagles finally got on the board in the second period, but the margin grew to 49-2 and just kept on growing.
All nine of the Mustang players that saw action earned at least two field goals. Lauren Soule led with 19 points, while Tessa Mosher had 16 points. Erica Balman (11 points) and Nicole Wynne (10 points) also hit double figures as Molly MacLachlan, Morgan DeLand (nine points apiece), Riley Spricer (eight points) and Meghan Witkowski (seven points) lagged just behind.
By stark contrast, in last Wednesday night’s opener at Cazenovia, the Mustangs never could get its offense into a consistently productive mode in a 39-33 loss to the Lakers.
All through the first three periods, Marcellus could not do much against Cazenovia’s defense. That started to prove costly in the second quarter, where the Lakers started to gradually build a margin.
Trailing 33-22 going to the final period, the Mustangs tried to rally, as Soule, with 14 points, led the way, but it could not catch up. Witkowski, with eight points, and Wynne, with six points, offered the main support to Soule. Cazenovia’s Maggie Carpenter led both sides with 15 points.
As this went on, J-E’s struggles continued as it gave up 56 first-half points to Chittenango in last Tuesday night’s 73-18 defeat to the Bears. Keelie Hotchkiss had eight points for the Eagles as Kaitlin Antelmi got 28 points on the Bears’ behalf.
While all this was going on, Solvay, who had lost its season opener to Bishop Grimes on Nov. 30, returned nearly a week later and got into the win column at Phoenix, edging the Firebirds 38-34.
This game went back and forth. The Bearcats, up 9-6 through one period, gave up that edge, only to take it back and lead 26-23 through three periods. Then it did just enough in the homestretch to thwart any possible Phoenix comeback.
Though the Firebirds’ Meghan Barry led both sides with 14 points, Solvay had a bit more balance and depth. Courtney Napolitano picked up 10 points, while Kelly Nolan had eight points. Taylor Guinta got seven points and Jackie Gardner contributed six points.
