The Shenendehowa girls basketball team appeared ready to hand Colonie its second loss of the season. Instead, it was Colonie that handed Shen its second loss.
The Garnet Raiders rallied from a 31-25 deficit to defeat Shen 35-31 Tuesday and forge a first-place tie with the Plainsmen in the Suburban Council Blue Division.
I think we did a lot of things well tonight, said Colonie coach Karen Bonitatibus. `There’s still some things we have to work on.`
`You’ve got to give Colonie a lot of credit,` said Shen coach Ken Strube. `They had their backs to the wall, and they scored the last 10 points of the game.`
Shen (13-1 league, 15-2 overall) started each half well, but turnovers and poor shooting prevented the Plainsmen from maintaining their momentum. During Colonie’s 10-0 closing run, Shen turned the ball over several times in a row and then struggled to get a good shot off at the end.
`We started playing a little complacent ` like we’re not trying to make mistakes ` and you can’t play like that,` said Strube.
Bre O’Dell gave Shen an early boost by hitting her first two three-pointers as part of a 7-2 opening run. But O’Dell and starting for-ward Sarah Waltersdorf soon found themselves on the bench with foul trouble. That allowed Colonie (13-1, 17-1) to close the first quarter on an 8-4 run to take a 12-11 lead.
Meg Goodwin did what she could to keep Shen close. Goodwin scored 11 of her 13 points in the second and third quarters, but she was shut down by Colonie’s defense in the fourth quarter.
`Meg did a tremendous job,` said Strube. `The reason why we were in this game was because of her.`
Shen’s defense contained Colonie’s leading scorer Logan Pintka to seven points, but Pintka’s lone basket ` a driving layup with 2:40 left in the fourth quarter ` put the Garnet Raiders ahead for good.
`The offense came when we needed it,` said Pintka. `I think our offense came from our defense.`
`Logan’s a good player. That’s why she’s a winner,` said Strube. `You keep playing hard, and good things eventually happen. Unfortunately, it worked against us.`
Despite the loss, Shen will have the No. 1 seed for both the Suburban Council Tournament and the Section II, Class AA playoffs ` the result of a coin flip at Sunday’s league meeting. “
