by The run and gun fast paced, high tempo attack of the Avon Eagles was in full force Wednesday night as they defeated the visiting Padua Bruins 59-38 to lift the lid on the 2023-2024 season. The Eagles saw 11 players reach the stat sheet, and were led by the exciting freshman Alaina Pagan with 11. Emma Owens had 7, while senior leader, Molly Drenik controlled the paint with 9 big points herself.
Also tallying points for the Eagles were Makenzie Ptacek and Abby Owens with 6 each, while Grace Mangan and Madigan O’Leary each had 4. Amelia Holbrook chipped in with 3 while Emily Mangan and Emma Fitch had 2 apiece. Jayla Antrum rounded out the scoring with 5 for the Eagles attack.
The Bruins had a mixture of offense at times, but the only consistent scorer throughout the night was Sophia Spade with 13 points. Spade is only a freshman on this team, but will look to gel with Michaela Cario if the Bruins hope to do big things this season.
Both defense’s started off tight as the game didn’t see its first bucket until a minute in when the freshman starting Eagle Alaina Pagan hit a layup. This put the Eagles up 2-0. The Bruins got the points back on a shot made by Ashley Rypiak.
Once again, the defenses stood tall as the game stayed at 2 apiece until a Pagan foul shot put the Eagles up again 3-2, with a little over 5 play to play in the first. Points remained hard to come by as the first quarter reached it’s final 32 seconds, with Padua ahead 8-6. That is when Avon decided to go off for 7 straight points. 4 of them from Molly Drenik and 3 from Jayla Antrum to lead 13-8 after one.
The smothering Avon defense continued into the second quarter as they didn’t allow a single Bruin point until 3:12 remained in the first half. By that point, the Eagles had built a 25-10 lead, thanks in part to hot shooting from Pagan and Ptacek. The Eagles took a 28-11 lead into the halftime break.
The Eagles fast attack offense started again in the third as they went on a 6-0 to start the half before a Michela Cario three ball from the corner, calmed the pace for a brief moment. From there, the Eagles ran the lead out to 43-15 with big shots from O’Leary, Ptacek, Drenik, Antrum and Emma Owens. By the end of the third quarter, Avon had built a 46-18 lead. The biggest damage coming from Emma Owens and Madigan O’Leary who had 4 each as 7 different Eagles scored in the quarter.
The Bruins had a bit of a surge in the 4th, scoring 20 points, with 8 coming by way of Sophie Spade, but it wasn’t nearly enough as the Eagles cruised to the 59-38 victory.
