BY CHRIS MANNINGNorthern Tier Sports Report
ROME — NEB girls’ hoops continued to roll in the new year, beating Canton 61-27 in NTL action Wednesday for their third straight win.
The Warriors hung tough for a half, but NEB out scored them 31-6 in the second half to pull away.
“The girls are playing super hard, and it is fun,” said NEB coach Ben Beebe. “They’re enjoying me being able to let them just run. We don’t have an offensive set, you can’t scout for us on offense because we haven’t run one. We just run, and that way they don’t have to think.”
The Panthers assisted on 16 of 27 field goals as three players scored 15 points or more. They especially did a good job getting out in transition, even after Canton makes.
“We’re pretty in shape right now, so it’s working out that our persistence on defensive pressure is starting to wear people down,” said NEB coach Ben Beebe. “And that’s where we start to thrive.”
Canton hung with them for much of the first half, even cutting it to a five point deficit halfway through the second quarter, but NEB extended that to nine by the break, and out scored Canton 14-3 through the early portion of the third quarter to pull away.
Leah Beebe had 22 points to lead NEB, while adding six steals, and seven assists, while Lillie Maynard had a full stat line of 15 points, eight boards, five steals, five blocks, and three assists.
Becca VanDeMark notched 16 points, and three steals, as Mallorie Maynard had four points, 11 boards, and four steals. Lilah Hughes chipped in with four points, two steals, and four assists.
Canton missed a few first half lay-ups that could have kept things even through the first two frames, but just ran out of gas in the second half under NEB’s defensive pressure.
Kendall Kitchen led Canton with 10 points, with Cailyn VanNoy netting five. Lydia Roupp scored four, Alexis McRoberts, and Danah Wesneski had three points apiece, and Cheyenne Fitch notched two.
Lillie Maynard scored the first six NEB points, but it was 6-6 through the early first as the Warriors got back to back buckets from Roupp, followed by a Kitchen lay-up.
The two teams traded buckets to make it 8-8, but NEB followed that up with a 7-0 run as Mallorie Maynard and Beebe got lay-ups, followed by VandeMark hitting a 3-ball for a 15-8 advantage.
A VanNoy 3-pointer cut it to 15-11 after one.
The Panthers ran their lead to 21-11 to start the second as Beebe had a lay-up and 3-pointer sandwiched around another Lillie Maynard basket.
The Warriors would rally through the middle portion of the frame, beginning with a Wesneski 3-pointer. That was followed by a McRoberts basket to make it 22-16.
A VandeMark lay-up extended the lead back to eight, while a McRoberts freebie cut it to 24-17.
VandeMark would make it 26-17 with another bucket, but Canton came back with field goals by VanNoy and Kitchen to cut it to 26-21.
Lillie Maynard ended the half much like she started it, with back to back buckets for a 30-21 score at the break.
Coming out of the locker rooms VandeMark hit a lay-up to make it an 11-point game.
Kitchen would knock down a 3-ball off a VanNoy assist for a 32-24 score, but that’s as close as Canton got as NEB scored the next 12 points.
VandeMark hit another lay-up, followed by Beebe nailing a 3-ball. A pair of buckets from Hughes followed to extend the lead to 41-24, with a Beebe 3-ball making it a 20-point lead.
A Kitchen 3-pointer ended the run, with Beebe getting the final bucket of the frame for a 46-27 lead.
In the fourth NEB held Canton scoreless as they secured the win.
Canton (5-5) will look to end the 2-game losing streak as they host NP-Liberty on Friday, while NEB (7-2) travels to Sayre.
After that they face Muncy on Monday as their schedule looks to pick up.
“We just want to improve ourselves,” said Beebe. “I haven’t really watched a lot of game film on anybody else, we’ve just been working on how we can be better executing defensively and offensively.”
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PHOTOS BY CHRIS MANNING
