BY CHRIS MANNINGNorthern Tier Sports Report
TOWANDA — Coming into Thursday’s game Towanda’s Brynn Woodruff needed 11 points to hit 1,000, she got 14, and the Knights needed every one of them as they held off a pesky Canton team, 48-41, during NTL girls’ hoops action.
“I don’t think we played well, by any means, offensively, but I credit Canton to that,” said Towanda coach Rob Gentile. “Ryan (Van Noy) does a fantastic job. They mix the defenses up, they’ve got some physical kids inside, they rebound the ball well.”
With the game tied at 41-all with under a minute to go it was Towanda sophomore Reese Sullivan making a running lay-up to give the Knights the 2-point cushion.
From there they went 5-for-6 from the charity stripe to ice the game.
“Reese made a big play at the end,” said Gentile. “I was really proud of her. She’s a slasher, and she can score, and she’s really starting to kind of come into her own. We’ve been talking about turning the ball over a little too much, and she’s really trying to focus on being aggressive without making the wrong decision. I thought she had just a great moment for her.”
With five minutes to play in the fourth Woodruff got her moment, hitting a left handed lay-up in traffic to hit the milestone, while also giving her team a 38-35 lead.
“It felt good, like it was a relief off my shoulders,” Woodruff said.
She went scoreless in the first quarter, then scored nine in the second.
The third was like the first, as Woodruff went scoreless, then got to the foul line to start the fourth, going 1-for-2, before hitting the mark a couple minutes later.
“It was dreadful,” Woodruff said about that opening quarter. “But I had confidence in my team, and everything. I knew I was going to get my shot.”
Her first make was a 3-pointer and that set her off.
“It got my moment going,” Woodruff said. “I liked seeing my team get hyped, I knew it was coming.”
Gentile has credited Woodruff with wearing many hats on the team.
“It’s great for her, she’s come a long way,” he said. “Her freshman year she came in here on a really talented basketball, and I threw her in a role which was entirely different - I gave her the Porschia Bennett role - and she just ran up and down the floor, and she hit some threes here and there. Her game has changed quite a bit over the four years, and she’s worked really hard at it. She’s an awesome kid, she’s tough, she’s physical. She’s also a kid that wears her emotions on her sleeve. I’m proud of her.”
Payton Perry added 14 points, and was a key spark for them in the third quarter.
“She made some big buckets in the third in some tough circumstances,” said Gentile.
Sullivan and Mya Maynard each finished with nine, as Mary-Kate Eberlin scored two.
“I thought Mary-Kate Eberlin did a really good job controlling things,” said Gentile.
For Canton, though its a loss, it’s a much better performance than last year’s game that ended in a mercy rule win for Towanda.
“I think it was huge for us, I really do,” Van Noy said about taking the Knights to the wire. “Losing Kendall (Kitchen) was a big thing, and we were worried about coming in, and to play a game like that with a bigger school, and make shots, and defend like we did - our defense has been on all year long - every game that we’ve lost our defense has kept us in the game. We had some kids make some shots tonight that haven’t been making shot, so I’m happy with where we’re at.”
Danah Wesneski led Canton with 10 points, as Cailyn Van Noy netted nine.
Stella Rockwell added six, with Brenna Van Noy, Daveian Crowley, Alexis McRoberts, and Lydia Roupp all scoring four points.
Towanda led 5-2 early then the 3-point barrage came from Canton.
Four of their next five buckets were from deep - one from Rockwell, one from Cailyn Van Noy, and two out of Wesneski - to push them to a 16-7 first quarter lead.
Towanda would chip away in the second, going on a 10-0 run as Maynard hit a lay-up, followed by an old fashion 3-point play out of Sullivan.
Woodruff then hit a 3-ball, followed by a runner to put the Knights up 17-6.
McRoberts hit a put back for an 18-17 Canton lead and the back and forth was on.
Woodruff came back with a lay-up, but a Roupp bucket saw the Warriors go up 20-19.
Woodruff had the final say in the quarter, hitting another runner for a 21-20 lead at the half.
The Knights came out of the break with a 4-0 run to go up 25-20, but Canton came back with a 6-0 spurt of their own to go up 26-25.
Towanda would use the free throw line to retake, and extend, their lead, going 5-for-6 to take a 30-26 lead.
Rockwell, though, nailed a 3-ball to make it a 1-point game again..
Perry came back with a 3-pointer of her own, but a pair of Van Noy freebies saw Canton cut it to 33-31.
The two teams traded buckets down the stretch of the third for a 35-33 Towanda lead going into the fourth.
“Credit to Canton,” said Gentile. “Our defensive pressure has a tendency to wear the down, and they’ll make some silly mistakes like double dribbles, and some travels, and throwing the ball around a little bit. I thought we had a chance to extend our lead and pull away from them a little bit, but they just made the shots they needed to make, and we could never get rid of them.”
Woodruff would hit a free throw to start the fourth to put Towanda up three.
Brenna Van Noy answered with a lay-up, but then the Knights went on a 5-0 spurt to take a 41-35 lead with 4:01 to play.
The Warriors clawed their way back in, beginning with a McRoberts put back, followed by a Wesneski bucket to make it a 2-point game with 2:50 left.
After the teams traded turnovers Wesneski hit another basket with 1:30 to play to knot the game up at 41-all.
At the other end Crowley got a blocked shot to give Canton a chance to take the lead, but Towanda’s defense forced a turnover.
That set up Sullivan’s bucket to give the Knights the lead.
After another Warrior turnover they were forced to foul, with Perry sinking both with 28.7 seconds to play.
The Warriors got to the line on their next possession, but missed both.
In the final 15 seconds Maynard made one free throw, while Woodruff made two to ice the game.
“That’s what Towanda is built on, they make you play faster than you want to play, and make you turn the ball over,” Van Noy said. “We knew it was going to be a battle like that. We knew we had to handle the pressure, and probably should have done it a little bit better. I should have made some better calls to keep us out of some pressure up the sidelines, but we ultimately kept fighting. I think tonight’s loss is going to pay off for us in the long run, because it was a playoff game. You want to win a game like that, but just getting in that element right before the end of the season was big for us.”
As for the Knights, they’re hoping to get a few more players to step up offensively down the road.
“We got really, really timid,” Gentile said. “And it happens, you make a mistake here and there, and you let it get to your head. We just addressed this. I’m not giving up on anybody, so you have a bad day, and sometimes we just let it affect us mentally, and oftentimes its contagious.”
Canton (11-4) will travel to Montgomery on Friday, while Towanda (13-3) hosts NEB next Tuesday.
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PHOTOS BY CHRIS MANNING
