Conneaut comes back to defeat PV in girls basketball

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CONNEAUT — Hot shooting and strong defense in the fourth quarter sparked a 44-41 comeback victory for the Conneaut Spartans over the Pymatuning Valley Lakers Tuesday night in non-conference girls basketball action.

Conneaut was led by junior Alexis Warner with 23 points, including 20 in the first half. Warner also grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds.

Her teammate senior Alexis Kiser added 19 points, with 14 coming in the second half.

“I think they do a good job of stepping up when they need to, letting the hot hand take it when they’re hot,” Conneaut coach Nicole Grimmett said. “They play pretty unselfish together. They’re each other’s biggest cheerleaders, so that’s exciting to have two players that can score on any given night.”

Warner said the Spartans defense allowed them to come back and score in transition.

“Limiting their second chance opportunities,” Warner said. “Just get the boards and push it forward.”

Kiser said she was able to get going in the second half, especially when the Lakers were looking to slow down Warner.

“I think just looking for my shot more, just knowing that they would guard her tighter, and then that just frees me up,” Kiser said.

After two tough losses recently in overtime, the Spartans were able to keep their composure and win the game.

“It just feels great,” Kiser said. “I mean, it just shows the growth that we’ve had, and the lessons that we learn from past games.”

The Lakers started off quickly and led 9-4, but the Spartans closed the gap with PV ahead 10-9 after the first quarter.

Conneaut took its first lead when Warner stole the ball and scored the first of her 14 points in the second quarter on a layup to give the Spartans an 11-10 advantage.

The Spartans built a lead as high as nine points in the second quarter, and took a 25-17 lead into the locker room.

However, the Lakers made some adjustments and nearly held the Spartans scoreless in the third quarter until Kiser made two of three free throws when she was fouled just before the period ended.

“We tried to make some adjustments that didn’t work out for us, and I think they made some at halftime that worked for them,” Grimmett said. “And we just had to switch gears again in the fourth quarter, and get back in the game.”

PV senior Sadie Paul made consecutive three-pointers in the third quarter to give the Lakers a 27-25 advantage, and PV was ahead 31-27 heading into the fourth quarter.

The Lakers built a 7-point lead early in the final period at 37-30, but the Spartans then went on a 12-0 run to go up 42-37 with 3:13 remaining.

PV cut the lead to 42-41 when senior Raylyn Ballentine scored with 1:40 remaining.

But the Spartans kept their composure and freshman Mckenzie Warner scored on a layup with 1:24 left to give Conneaut a 44-41 lead.

The Lakers had a couple chances to score in the last nine seconds of the game, but Paul couldn’t connect on a three-pointer. PV senior Eralyn Lockwood grabbed the offensive rebound and was fouled on the shot.

Lockwood missed both free throws, but the Lakers had one final chance when the ball went out of bounds off the Spartans with three seconds remaining, but couldn’t score on the inbounds play.

“Super proud of them. We’ve been in a lot of close situations, and this is the first time we’ve been able to come out on the other side, so it’s step in the right direction,” Grimmett said.

Lakers coach Michael Cole was pleased with his team’s effort.

“Those are fun because, you know, I told them in there, I’ve had games I’ve won and I’ve just been miserable,” Cole said. “Games like this, I can’t ask for more. They busted their tails, both teams played hard. They played clean.”

Cole said his players did everything he could have asked for in the game.

“As long as they’re executing, and working hard, I’m not asking for more,” Cole said.

With the win, the Spartans improved to 2-7 The Lakers dropped to 5-5 on the season.

Conneaut shot 16-for-42 (38.1%) from the field and 5 of 6 (83.33%) from the charity stripe. The Lakers made 17 shots out of 63 (26.98%) and shot 4-for-14 (28.57%) from the free-throw line.

The Spartans held a 32-26 rebounding advantage over the Lakers.

Next up: Conneaut hosts Erie Saturday, while PV visits Chalker Monday.

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