Girls basketball: Seneca holds off Putnam County for T-CC victory

SENECA – The Seneca girls basketball team put together a solid second quarter and start to the third to push out to a 10-point lead over Putnam County in Thursday night’s Tri-County Conference contest.

But in the final four minutes of the third, the Fighting Irish got away from what got them to the advantage, which allowed the Panthers to close to within three points heading to the final eight minutes.

However, the hosts were able to get back on track – using a key 3-pointer with just under two minutes to play from freshman Graysen Provance, then two free throws in the final minute from juniors Alyssa Zellers and Lainie Olson – to help close out a 45-37 victory.

“I feel like we played a pretty good game, but we just have to keep working on keeping things going.”

—  Alyssa Zellers, Seneca junior point guard

“On offense, we wanted to make sure we were working the ball around, cutting into open spots and not settling for perimeter shots,” said Zellers, who last week was named to the all-tournament team at the Lisle Christmas Tournament and finished Thursday’s game with a team-high 11 points to go along with three rebounds, two assists and two steals. “I thought we did a pretty good job with that, except for the last part of the third quarter where we didn’t do that and also didn’t take care of the ball as well as we should have. They were able to catch up because of that, but we were able to get back on track in the fourth quarter and keep ahold of the lead.”

[ Photos: Putnam County vs Seneca girls basketball ]

Seneca received nine points each from Olson and Tessa Krull, who also pulled down a game-best 13 rebounds and blocked a pair of shots. Audry McNabb added seven points and seven rebounds.

Seneca (11-10, 4-4) ended the game hitting 47% (14 of 30) from the field, 12 of 15 from the free-throw line and held a 33-28 margin on the boards.

Putnam County (15-6, 6-2) was led by Ava Hatton’s game-high 15 points, including 9 of 11 free throws, five rebounds and a pair of steals. Maggie Richetta added eight points, seven rebounds and two steals, while Gabby Doyle and Esmeralda Avila chipped in five points each.

The Panthers shot 29% (12 of 42) from the field and hurt themselves at the line, making just 12 of 22 shots.

“[Seneca coach Josh] Myers talked about how we really needed to focus on pressuring the ball to make it hard for their guards to get the ball into the post,” Zellers said. “Putnam County has some really good post players and players who are very good when they get into the lane, so the main focus tonight was trying to limit their chances from close to the basket. If they did get the ball down low, we wanted to double-team them and make them pass the ball back out. I think we did a pretty good job with that overall, but we still could have done better at times.”

Putnam County led 12-10 after the opening quarter, but Secena went on a 14-2 run to start the second, ending on a 3 from the right wing by Lauryn Barla, and held a 25-17 lead at the intermission.

A 3 by Olson and back-to-back layups by McNabb and Krull pushed the lead to 32-22 with four minutes remaining in the third. PC responded with an 8-0 run with consecutive hoops from Richetta, Avila and Doyle, plus two free tosses by Hatton to close to within 33-30 heading to the final quarter.

Midway through the fourth, a basket by Richetta and a three-point play by Hatton got the Panthers within 38-36, but Provance swished a 3-pointer from the top of the key to make it 41-36 before the free throws from Zellers and Olson closed out the game.

Seneca is back in action Monday when it hosts Henry-Senachwine, while Putnam County is off until Thursday when it travels to Roanoke-Benson.