Late surge lifts Johnstown past B-P
By DEREK DUNNING, The Leader-HeraldArticle Photos
JOHNSTOWN - The Johnstown girls' basketball team used a strong fourth quarter to down Foothills Council foe Broadalbin-Perth 50-28 Tuesday night.
The Lady Bills (3-1 Overall, 2-0 Foothills) outscored B-P 13-3 in the final eight minutes to pull away after the Patriots were able to hang tough for a majority of the game.
Johnstown's trio of Hillary Kollar, Brynn Hlozansky and Kendra Cooper proved to be too much for B-P as they accounted for 39 of the Lady Bills 50 points.
Kollar led the Lady Bills with 16 points, six offensive rebounds, and three assists while Cooper chipped in 13 points, three assists and two steals.
"Hillary Kollar is our anchor in so many respects with rebounding, defense, and shooting," Johnstown coach Tim Derwin said. "She took the game over in a nice way down the stretch attacking the basket and going to the hoop. She's a great three-point shooter but this year we talked about having her not go to that first and instead going to dribble penetration."
Derwin said that Cooper is currently playing through an injury otherwise she'd probably be seeing more playing time.
"Kendra Cooper isn't at 100 percent yet or she'd be one of our starters," he said. "She's coming off a lingering knee injury from field hockey. There is nobody in the league that can stay with her on dribble penetration, she's just extremely quick in getting to the hole and creates all kinds of shots for herself and her teammates."
Hlozansky turned in another strong performance for the Lady Bills in just her fourth varsity game as a sophomore. She tallied 10 points, just one behind her season-high of 11 and pulled down six offensive rebounds while being a force at both ends of the court.
"Brynn is the type of kid that goes out and is extremely active on the court," Derwin said. "This was her fourth varsity game and she is all over the place on the court. For a 10th grader to show that kind of leadership and be that involved getting offensive rebounds and points is remarkable. She had six or eight points in the second half where every one of them were big baskets."
B-P (0-2 overall, 0-2 Foothills) was led by Kaitlin Wood who pumped home 10 points for the Patriots. Morganne Ottati tallied eight points while Sarah Cope and Courtney Stead scored four points each to round out B-P's offensive leaders.
Johnstown led 12-7 after the first quarter and lengthened its lead to nine points after the second quarter with a 22-13 advantage going into the half-time break.
The Patriots scrapped their way through the first 16 minutes while Cope broke down the Johnstown defense with her speed.
"Our plan was to come out and pressure them but Cope is a really fast girl that kept blowing by us time and time again," Derwin said. "Defensively we never made the adjustment. We had to give her more room and we didn't. Her dribble penetrations were what set up a lot of their chances whether it was a shot for her or a pass to one of her teammates. She was a big factor in how well they played."
Once the Lady Bills were able to settle into their half-court defense they were successful as they forced five shot clock violations on the Patriots.
"When we settled into a half court set we defended pretty well, but it was getting beat at three quarter court by Cope that hurt us," Derwin said. "By the time she got to the three-point line, we're trailing her defensively so the forwards have to step up and help and they leave their player allowing Cope to dish it off to an open teammate. The girls were just following the game plan and next time we play them we'll respect her a little bit more."
B-P coach Mike Magliocca said he was pleased with the effort the Patriots showed against Johnstown compared to their first game.
"We finally came out to play," Magliocca said. "We were down by 11 going into the last quarter which was a great effort by our team compared to last Friday. Our girls are working hard, we had two great days of practice and we just need to keep staying focused on what we need to do rather than worrying about the other team."
Magliocca said the team took the Queensbury blowout loss personally and wanted to work to try and never let that happen again.
"We took how we played in the Queensbury game to heart," he said. "We know we didn't play well in the first game. We had some jitters but we got the jitters out tonight and came out and played a pretty good game. That first half was a great effort by us. We just need to play four quarters instead of two quarters."
The Patriots are still without their leader Avery Light who is recovering from an injury.
"Avery is out with an ACL injury," Magliocca said. "We're hoping she can come back by mid to late January but there is also a possibility that she may not be back all season. We just need to keep improving from game to game. We had two freshmen start tonight that did a pretty good job. We need them to keep stepping up and improving as the season goes on."
Johnstown hosts Glens Falls and one of the premier players in Section II in Kasey Sullivan on Friday night. Broadalbin-Perth will travel to Hudson Falls still looking for its first win of the season.
Johnstown 50, Broadalbin-Perth 28
Broadalbin-Perth 7 6 12 3 28
Johnstown 12 10 15 13 50
Broadalbin-Perth
Cope 2-0-4, Mac. Ottati 1-0-2, Mor. Ottati 3-2-8, Stead 2-0-4, Wood 4-2-10. Totals: 12-4-28.
Johnstown: Boyer 2-0-6, Brown 1-0-2, Cooper 5-3-13, Hlozansky 5-0-10, Kollar 4-7-16, Lybolt 1-0-2, Sweet 0-1-1,. Totals: 18-11-50.
3-point goals: Broadalbin-Perth none; Johnstown 3 (Boyer 2, Kollar 1).
