BATAVIA— Late game miscues put Wilmington on the losing end of a competitive, physical battle with Batavia Monday night, 43-41.
The Lady ‘Cane extends their two-game skid to three, bringing their record to 5-8 overall, 2-4 in the SBAAC American Division. They play host to the 12-1 East Clinton Lady Astros Thursday in an inter-county matchup.
Batavia’s win tonight was their fourth in four games. They find themselves sitting at 8-5 overall, and they comfortably occupy the third-place position in the SBAAC American with a 4-2 record. They host Taylor High School on Thursday evening in a non-conference bout.
A slow first half from Wilmington, that included 10 turnovers and a multitude of allowed offensive rebounds, put them in the position to chase all night. The Hurricane were essentially single-handedly kept in the game due to Katie Murphy scoring 10 of her 14 points in succession during the second quarter. The score at the half was 24-20, in favor of the Bulldogs.
“This team’s fought in every game they’ve been in. There’s no letup in them. Even when we got down 15, we got it back to four at half. We battled back and responded to their physicality, I mean, these girls have been battle tested and it’s going to be that way the rest of the year,” WHS coach Zach Williams said.
After the half, Wilmington quickly took their first lead of the game thanks to a Caroline Diels three-pointer and a Taylor Noszka layup. They scored six and 11, respectively.
Murphy and Batavia’s Macy McHenry got tangled up with each other for an off-ball, double foul and a Diels took a hard foul in the front court. Both plays energized both squads and brought the fans into the game heading into the fourth quarter, with Batavia leading by five.
Late in the fourth, Wilmington had possession of the ball, down three, and turned the ball over on consecutive possessions, both leading to easy layups and a 40-33 deficit. From there, Batavia sank their free throws and Wilmington did not. Noszka drained a three with less than five seconds left to make the score 43-41, but BHS didn’t have to inbound the ball.
“I was satisfied with the effort. We can’t have two turnovers within three and then we give up a six-point swing. They went down and capitalized because we were just rushing in those instances. We’ve got to calm down and take care of the ball,” Williams said.
The team went 7/15 from the free-throw line, including 4/9 in the final eight minutes.
“We had our opportunities and we couldn’t get it done. You can’t shoot 50 percent from the line and win a close game,” Williams said.
SUMMARY
Jan 9, 2023
@Batavia High School
Batavia 43, Wilmington 41
W^8^12^8^13^^41
B^14^10^9^10^^43
(41) WILMINGTON (fg-3fg-ft-tp) Robinson 1-0-3-5 Noszka 4-2-1-11 Tippett 1-1-2-5 C. Diels 2-1-1-6 Murphy 6-2-0-14 Walker 0-0-0-0 Adams 0-0-0-0 Conley 0-0-0-0 TOTALS 14-6-7/15-41
(43) BATAVIA (fg-3fg-ft-tp) McHenry 2-0-4-8 Thompson 6-2-1-15 Layman 2-0-2-6 Lugo 0-0-0-0 Smith 3-0-1-7 Shepherd 0-0-1-1 Poynter 1-0-1-3 Brookbank 1-1-0-3 Crawford 0-0-0-0 TOTALS 15-3-10/20-43
REBOUNDS: W-33 (Murphy 7 C. Diels 7 Robinson 5 Conley 5 Noszka 4 Tippett 1)
ASSISTS: W-10 (Murphy 3 C. Diels 2 Noszka 2 Robinson 1 Tippett 1 Conley 1)
STEALS: W-6 (Murphy 2 Tippett 2 C. Diels 1 Robinson 1)
BLOCKS: W-2 (Robinson 2)
TURNOVERS: W-14
