Scotia-Glenville defeats Johnstown
By DEREK DUNNING, The Leader-HeraldArticle Photos
JOHNSTOWN - It was deja-vu all over again for the Johnstown girls basketball team Tuesday night. The Lady Bills were on the short end of an 11-0 run to start a game for the third time already on this young season.
They also faced another one of Section II's premier players for the second straight game, this time in Scotia-Glenville's freshman sensation Cassie Broadhead. Broadhead torched Johnstown in the first half for 13 of her game-high 20 points to lead the Lady Tartans to a 58-32 victory.
Broadhead scored six points in Scotia-Glenville's initial 11-0 run. She started the game with a two from the right elbow a little over a minute into the game. She knocked home her first of two 3-pointers on the night coming off a Johnstown time-out to push the lead to 10-0. Broadhead then tacked on a free throw to complete the Lady Tartans' 11-0 run.
"Cassie has a great all-around game," Scotia-Glenville coach Regan Burns said. "She can penetrate, take it off the dribble and knock down the shot. She also helps control all offense and helps settle everyone down. We had people penetrating and kicking the ball out to her. She was getting her points all over the place tonight."
Johnstown coach Tim Derwin said he wished he had an answer on why the Lady Bills can't seem to shake the 11-0 start curse.
"At some point here these tough starts are messing with our confidence and psyche," Derwin said. "It gets to a point where we no longer become basketball players and start making mistakes that aren't characteristic of us. I think we're a better team than that, but for some reason we just can't get off to good starts."
Broadhead, the Foothills Council leading scorer, averaging 17.3 points, added four points in the first quarter to give her 10 of Scotia's 15 points. The Lady Tartans led 15-3 after eight minutes.
In the second quarter, Johnstown was able to find its rhythm a little bit as the Lady Bills were able to break the Scotia full-court press and score some easy layups. However, the Lady Tartans still outscored Johnstown 12-9 in the second quarter to take a 27-12 lead into the locker room.
Scotia (5-1 overall, 4-0 Foothills) put the game away for good in the third quarter with a 17-2 run, fueled once again by Broadhead, who had seven points in the quarter.
The Lady Tartans' relentless defensive pressure forced Johnstown to make quicker decisions than the Lady Bills were ready to make resulting in numerous turnovers. Broadhead and Sarah Janson each tallied six steals to lead Scotia.
"Our plan coming into every game is a defensive effort first," Burns said. "Our girls brought intensity from start to finish on our press and it bothered them. Our half-court and full-court defense are really what set the tempo for us. We create a lot of shots off our defense as our defense triggers our offense."
Danielle Conley posted a double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds for Scotia. Sarah Janson chipped in 14 points as well for the Lady Tartans to round out their offensive leaders.
"There's no doubt and it's no fluke that Conley and Broadhead do the things do and why they get points," Derwin said. "Broadhead is a good player but I thought we made her work pretty hard for her baskets. Conley is probably the best post player in the league. We knew they were good and that's why we went zone for a little while and we had some success in some defensive sets. We've got some good players too it's just a matter of getting them going more consistently."
Scotia took the same game plan Glens Falls did against Johnstown in the Lady Bills last game in trying to take Hillary Kollar out of the offense.
"We knew we had to stop Kollar as she's a great shooter," Burns said. "I thought we really got into her at the beginning of the game and got her flustered a little bit. Johnstown traditionally is a great shooting team and tonight we forced them to take a little bit quicker shots than they were probably used to. Fortunately for us they weren't falling. That was the most complete game we've played all season."
While they didn't hold Kollar to five points like Glens Falls did, Scotia still made Kollar a non-factor for the most part, forcing her to the outside and attempting deep 3's. She was only successful on one of them, finishing the game with 11 points to lead the Lady Bills.
Tiffany Boyer tallied eight points and Lindsay Achzet chipped in five points. Kendra Cooper, Brynn Hlozansky, Jess Lybolt, and Alex Sweet all had two points to round out Johnstown's offense.
Derwin said that it's back to the drawing board for Johnstown as they head into the Christmas break.
"I think if we got a couple of baskets and got ourselves over the hump early we'd see different outcomes and be more competitive," he said. "Everybody starts aiming their shots and telegraphing their passes instead of playing the game like we're capable of."
The Lady Bills (3-3 overall, 2-2 Foothills) will be back in action on Dec. 30, when they travel to Fonda-Fultonville looking to avenge a 54-48 loss in their season opener.
Scotia-Glenville 58, Johnstown 32
Scotia-Glenville15 12 17 14 58
Johnstown3 9 8 12 32
Scotia-Glenville
C. Broadhead 7-4-20, N. Broadhead 1-2-4, Conley 5-1-11, Ferrari 2-0-4, Janson 5-4-1, Sanboeuf 2-1-5, Totals: 22-12-58
Johnstown
Achzet 2-1-5, Boyer 2-2-8, Cooper 1-0-2, Hlozansky 1-0-2, Kollar 3-4-11, Lybolt 1-0-2, Sweet 1-0-2, Totals: 11-7-32
3-point goals: Scotia-Glenville 2 (Broadhead 2); Johnstown 3 (Boyer 2, Kollar 1).






