By David J. Hill<br><a href="mailto:hilld@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail David</a>
TOWN OF TONAWANDA — Lockport didn’t shoot like the top-ranked girls basketball team in Western New York Friday night. It did, however, rebound and defend like the No. 1 team, and it helped the Lady Lions remain undefeated in the Niagara Frontier League with a 41-26 victory at third-place Kenmore East.
Lockport’s trio of bigs — Lea Sobieraski, Marissa Guyton and Emma Sobieraski — had a monster presence under the hoop all night, while as a team the Lions shut down Kenmore East’s sharp-shooters, forcing the Bulldogs to look timid and uncomfortable much of the night.
Joelle Pollak, East’s career scoring leader, had only seven points, as did Katie Blanch. Caroline Randall led Lockport (13-1, 12-0 NFL) with a steady 16 points and Lea Sobieraski had 10.
The Lions led 13-9 after the first quarter and did most of their damage in the middle quarters, during which they outscored East 21-9. In fact, the Bulldogs (13-3, 9-3) were held to single digits in each of the four quarters, and their 26 points for the game was their lowest point total all season.
East worked hard on the defensive end of the floor, limiting Lockport’s offense the way they had hoped to. “If we held them to 40 points, we thought we’d be in the game,” Bulldogs coach Jack Blanch said. “We did that part of it, we just did not do enough offensively. We were timid at times. Maybe that was because they were so big inside.”
Lockport’s 41 points was its second-lowest total of the season. The Lions had their struggles early, rushing shots and missing a number of open looks near the basket. That helped East take a brief lead in the game’s opening minutes. During a timeout, Lockport coach Bill Shaw told his girls to relax, and they came out of the timeout on a 6-0 run to take the lead. A bucket by Guyton made it a 23-13 game late in the second quarter, and Lockport kept it at double digits for the remainder of the game. The Lions led 34-18 after the third quarter.
“We didn’t shoot well at all tonight, but we controlled the boards and I think we wore them down by the second half,” Shaw said. “We didn’t let our poor shooting discourage us, which I was very pleased with.”
And holding Pollak, who averages 22 points per game, to single digits was just as huge. “That’s a credit to Caroline Randall. We did a great job of team defense on her but Caroline Randall had (Pollak) all night and I think Caroline really frustrated her,” Shaw said.
Although Randall was Lockport’s leading scorer, even she didn’t have a solid night percentage-wise. “She’s a gamer,” Shaw said. “She shot terrible tonight, but to her credit she never let it affect any other part of her game. She kept her head up and did a great job on defense.”
Lockport’s size advantage certainly played a factor in East’s performance, but Blanch said his group also lacked the tenacity they usually have.
“We didn’t play with the aggressiveness that we needed to,” he said. “They’re big, obviously, and it was hard for us to match up. ... When (they’ve) got three girls that are 6-1 or taller and you don’t have anyone close to that at any position, it’s a tough matchup. The girls worked hard, just offensively we fell a little short today.”
Contact reporter David J. Hill at 693-1000, ext. 115.
