by The Avon Lake Shoregals began their season with a commanding 60-25 win over the visiting Lorain Titans. The Shoregals took advantage of superior conditioning and attack style offense by scoring on several run outs as the Titans simply couldn’t get back on defense quick enough to stop the aggressive style of Avon Lake.
This showed time and time again as the Shoregals attacked the rim, scoring almost all of their points from the paint, not relying on the three ball. They put in 10 from the charity stripe as well. They did 4 from beyond the arc however in the big win.
Pacing the way for the Shoregals with 12 was 3 year starter Marissa Summerfield. Scoring 11 was Courtney Borland as big things are expected of her this season along with the 8 brought in by Claire Springer. Jane Ritt poured in 7 while Bre Jones had 6. Brynn Bondar got going late as all 4 of her points came in the fourth. Olivia Tobin also had 4 for the Shoregals as Leah Hicov, Maya Austerman, Sophia Wilson and Izzy Polinko each had 2. If my count is correct, 11 Shoregals saw the stat sheet today.
After two minutes of tight defense and no scoring a fast break initiated by Marissa Summerfield would lead to points as she drove and dished to Courtney Borland for the first points of the season. Moments later it was Summerfield picking up her first points of the season as well with a nice spin move to the middle of the paint to score. Jane Ritt would nail four foul shots while Courtney Borland buried a three ball before the quarter was over, as the Shoregals held a commanding 11-2 lead after one.
After the Shoregals started the second quarter with a nice power move inside by Clair Springer to make it 13-2, the Titans of Lorain scored 5 straight to cut into the lead at 13-7 midway through the second as Avon Lake started the quarter cold from the floor. A Sophia Wilson drive for two followed by a Summerfield three ball would kick the lead back out to 18 – 7. The Shoregals went on to take a 26-15 lead into the half with several run-out buckets as Lorain failed to get back on defense.
Claire Springer came out gunning in the second half as she hit a three pointer and also put together a nice inside move as the Shoregals increased their lead to 31-17. The Shoregals used the big quarter from Springer with 6 and Bre Jones with 6, to take a 45-21 lead into the fourth.
Avon Lake began the final quarter with a 9-2 run that saw 4 points coming from Brynn Bondar to put it away for good. Bondar, who is one of those players who can lead the Shoregals to big things this year. Avon Lake would cruise from there for the 60-25 victory in Paul Appels debut as head coach.
Avon Lake 11 15 19 15 = 60
Lorain 2 13 6 4 = 25
** Any Avon Lake Business owner can receive 50% off their 2023 sponsorship of Kee On Sports by contacting Vince McKee this week at coachvin14@yahoo.com **
Avon Lake is a nice team , they beat almost by the exact score as last year. I don’t think they will be able to that against more talented teams . We beat ourselves,like coach said said in the paper . We got blown out because they’re in better shape then us. They go 13 deep and are conditioned. I’m sure Mark will fix that. If AL can do that against the top teams in the SWC I will eat crow!