The Shaker and Ballston Spa girls basketball teams looked for a spark to ignite their Suburban Council seasons as they met Friday.
Shaker found what it was looking for, as it fended off Ballston Spa 54-42 for its second league win in six tries.
Our shots went in for us tonight, and I think we played better than them, said Shaker coach Chris Mazzeo. `I think we played pretty good defense on them, (and) we had our shots go in during the first half.`
`We didn’t play well tonight. It was not one of our better games,` said Ballston Spa coach Joe McClements, whose team was coming off wins against Mohonasen and Troy. `We didn’t shoot the ball well. We had some open looks early, and the ball was just not going in the hoop for us.`
Shaker (2-4 league, 5-5 overall) took a 14-9 lead in the first quarter and increased it to 13 points with an 8-0 run in the second quarter. Junior guard Eden Alaxanian led the way in the first half by knocking down three of her five three-pointers.
Ballston Spa (3-3, 5-4) tried to get back in the game with a 7-0 run in the third quarter, which made the score 40-31. But that was as close as the Scotties got.
`We were struggling from the foul line (and) from the outside, and that hurts you,` said McClements. `When you’re not on, it’s very tough to make any kind of comeback.`
`We would have rather put them away all at once, but they had some runs where they got a couple of easy points that brought them back into the game,` said Mazzeo. `Overall, I thought we fended off their attack pretty well and held it at that 10-12 point margin. That was our goal ` to keep it there.`
Alaxanian finished with 18 points, while senior Michelle Santoro contributed 10 points for Shaker. Casey Wright’s 15 points paced Ballston Spa, and senior Ashley Fabian chipped in 10 points.
In other Suburban Council action Friday, Colonie remained undefeated with a 57-31 victory over Bethlehem. Logan Pintka scored 19 points, Taylor Amarando contributed 12 points and Lindsey Branche added 11 points for the Lady Raiders.“