GRAHAMSVILLE, NY — The Lady Bears of Tri-Valley dominated the Livingston Manor/Roscoe girls’ hoopsters on December 19. The Lady Bears defeated the visitors 53-17 in a non-league varsity basketball game.

The scoring started out slowly for Manor, as they had to play catch-up in the first frame; the team only posted 3 points compared to the home team’s 19 points.

In the second period, both squads added 9 points to the respective scorebooks, while in the final frames, it was the Lady Bears, 15-2 and 10-3.

Tri-Valley’s top scorers:

Jenna Carmody (24 points), Jordan Dymond (9), Emily Rusin (8), Riley Kelly (6), Molly Van Etten (6)

Manor’s top guns:

Anastasia Niforatose (7 points, including a three-pointer), Sara Evans (5)

At the free throw line, both teams showed they need a bit of practice: Tri-Valley posted 7 out of 13 (54 percent) and Manor/Roscoe posted  2 out of 4 (50 percent).

“It was a rough game, but on the positive side I saw my girls play more aggressively,” said Maggie Fitzpatrick, coach of the merged Lady Wildcats (1-5). “They were able to get to the basket and open up faster, but really struggled finding bodies on rebounding, and that really hurt us.”

Jason Closs, helmsman of the Lady Bears (4-1) described the opposition as “scrappy players who never give up” and that after a slow start, “they got right back in the game. In the second half, we got better in our defense and stopped their dribble penetration that gave us fits in the first half.” 

According to Tri-Valley’s coach, the strengths of the varsity bucketeers include depth and the “ability to play nine girls for some quality minutes. No matter who’s in, we’re going after it!”