Sweet Home rebounds, doubles up WS West

Sweet Home rebounded from a 74-42 defeat at Jamestown on Dec. 5 to double up West Seneca West, 64-32, at home on Friday.

Sweet Home coach Matt LaRoach said defense was the key against West Seneca West. The Lady Panthers led after every quarter (15-9 after first, 25-20 at halftime and 52-22 after three).

“These girls stepped it up on the defensive end of the floor,” said LaRoach. “ We started a little slow in the first half, but after halftime, we came out with a lot of defensive intensity which caused us to get a lot of transition points. Our third quarter was huge. We were able to outscore West Seneca West 27-2 and it was all because of what we did on the defensive end of floor. The girls just got after it.”

Ellie Allen led all scorers with 26 points. She also grabbed 10 rebounds and five assists.

“She was a force on both sides of the ball and stepped up as a leader on both ends,” said LaRoach.

Coretta Davis added a career-high 18 points. Amanda Cannizzo and Kiaya Burks added six points each.

“I liked the fact that we had balance in the score book as we had seven people scoring and two in double digits,” said LaRoach.

Jessica Cristiano led West Seneca West with eight points.

Sweet Home’s loss to Jamestown is a game LaRoach felt his team got better from.

Jamestown was ahead 23-7 after the first quarter, 38-17 at halftime and 52-30 by the end of the third quarter.

“I truly believe this was a game we got better from and I know the score may not reflect that to some,” said LaRoach. “Offensively we were able to get very good looks and some of those looks just didn’t fall for us unfortunately. I am happy with the fact that we were able to put up 42 points against this Jamestown team, unfortunately we are not going to

win basketball games this year if we give up 74 points. Jamestown is a good team and they showed why they are the front runner in our league this year. You can tell that their girls play year around and are fundamentally sound.”

Allen scored 14 points and grabbed six rebounds. Cannizzo did a great job defensively, holding Jamestown’s Erinne Cunningham to two points, said LaRoach.

Davis (six points), Burks (six points), and Nadia Durno (five points, seven rebounds) all played well, said LaRoach.

Jamestown’s Nikki Fredrickson had 21 points.

Sweet Home (1-4) played at Kenmore East Tuesday but results were unavailable before The Bee went to press. They face Orchard Park at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.