Girls basketball: First quarters prove decisive for Serena, Seneca

SENECA – The first eight minutes of the 2021-22 girls basketball season went a long way toward deciding the outcome of the first two games of the Seneca portion of the Falcon-Irish Thanksgiving Tournament on Monday night.

Good for one local team. For the others, not so much.

The Serena Huskers put the pedal to the metal in the opening game against Hall, racing out to a 22-1 lead in the first seven minutes, and didn’t let up on the gas much the rest of the way to cruise to a 47-22 victory over the Red Devils.

In the second game, Herscher did pretty much the same thing to turnover-prone Seneca in the first period, jumping out to a 16-6 margin. However, the Tigers had to come up with several big plays down the stretch to hold off the Irish for a 43-35 win.

All four teams will return to action Wednesday, with the Monday winners squaring off at 5:30 p.m. and the host Irish and Hall meeting in the nightcap at 7.

Serena 47, Hall 22: Neither team seemed ready for the start of the opener, combining for nine turnovers in the first three minutes before the Huskers’ press started to take hold. Steals by Katie Baker led to her own layup, another for Paisley Twait and a 10-0 lead before Hall got on the board with a Jayden Jones free throw, but the press kept that landslide coming.

Reese Cole netted four points as Serena notched the next 12 points for a 22-1 margin before the Devils got their first fielder, a putback by Promise Giacometti with 47.1 seconds left in the period.

“After about the first two minutes, I thought we had a nice first quarter,” said Serena coach Jim Jobst. “We pushed the ball well, we had a number of steals, and when we can get out and run, that’s when we’re at our best.

“We only have three players that saw a lot of time last year, but that leadership made a difference tonight. Katie is like a calming force for us. She takes care of the ball, and that takes a lot of pressure off the rest of the girls, which helps, especially early in the game. That allowed everyone to relax, and we spread the ball around pretty well tonight, too. …

“It was a good way to start the year.”

Hall eventually gathered itself and played better, getting a team-best eight points over the last three stanzas from Toni Newton, but the damage was done. The Devils ended up shooting 25% from the field, 0-for-13 on 3-pointers with 28 turnovers. Makayla McNally and Jaiden Mahler led Serena’s 38-22 edge on the glass with nine and eight caroms, respectively.

McNally scored nine points, Twait scored nine, and Baker led all scorers with 13.

Hall was led by Toni Newton’s nine points.

“I didn’t know what to expect, honestly, because we don’t have a lot of experience. I was hoping for better, but I can’t say that I’m necessarily surprised, either,” said Hall coach TJ Orlandi. “Serena is a good team. It’s a tough opening matchup for any inexperienced team to open against a team that will full-court press, constantly in your face, and that’s what happened in the first quarter. You can talk about pressure like that in practice, but there’s no way to simulate it.

“At least we calmed down the rest of the way, got into some of the things we want to do and got better after that opening blow, but that was the difference. We know what to work on.”

Herscher 43, Seneca 35: After the Irish went ahead 2-0 on a putback by Emma Smith, the Tigers poured in 16 of the next 18 points, a majority of them off turnovers. Thirteen Seneca turnovers led to 12 of those points, with Macey Moore stealing and laying the ball in four times as HHS went up 16-4. Moore finished with a game-best 19 points.

Seneca righted the ship with intense defense, forcing seven miscues to climb back within 22-17 early in the third quarter and 11 turnovers in that period to get within 33-28 early in the fourth.

Kennedy Hartwig, who had nine of her 11 points in the fourth, nailed a trey with 3:24 left to cut the deficit to 37-33, but three points from Hailey King and another deuce from Moore suddenly upped it back to nine.

Smith finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds for the Irish.

“That was the key word, ‘stretches,’ ” Seneca coach Brian Holman said. “You can’t play in stretches. There has to be more consistency. You can’t come out in the first quarter and get shellshocked, then say, ‘We’re OK now.’ You’re down 12, you make two baskets and you feel good about that, but you look at the scoreboard, and you’re still down eight. We are super-inexperienced when it comes to that, but I know we’ll get there.

“No. 10 (Ruder) and No. 30 (Moore) for them are four-year varsity players. They’ve been through the battles, and we just haven’t. … We’re seeing, wow, this is fast and this is tough, but it’s one game. We’ll get over it. You can’t win games when you’re throwing the ball to the other team too much.”