Coming into Tuesday night’s game Amherst Head Coach Mike Chatelle was worried his team might come out a little flat after Friday’s tough loss to Will South.
Luckily for the Tigers, Chatelle was wrong.
The Lady Tigers came out on fire, getting a 14 point lead at the end of the first quarter. Amherst grabbed and kept the lead on their way to an 81-64 win over the Clarence Red Devils in ECIC girls basketball action.
Chatelle called a timeout a minute into the fourth quarter. He needed to do something. The Red Devils had cut Amherst’s halftime lead from 21 to 11 points in the third quarter and then cut that lead to eight.
The Amherst defense then tightened up and the Tigers began to pull away. With just over five minutes left in the fourth, Ella Wanzer made a rain drop shot from around the foul line to give her team the 10 point lead and never looked back. The shot propelled the Tigers on a 15-8 run in the final five minutes of the game.
The game got off to a quick start as sophomore Leah Shutts stole the ball and found eighth grader Emma Klein streaking down the court for an easy layup. Klein followed it up with a backdoor layup. Freshman Morgan Halt came up with a steal and then scored with 20 seconds left in the quarter to take the 19-5 lead for the Tigers.
Klein had 19 points and Shutts had 10 points in the win.
The second was a quarter of threes. Shutts hit a three-pointer early in the sencod to give her the 24-7 lead. Clarence took a timeout and the Red Devil long-range game came alive. Kayla Callaghan and Lauren Cullinan hit from way downtown. The shots helped to the Red Devils to go on a 16-5 run.
But then with two minutes left in the half, Claire Wanzer took control and halted the Clarence run in its tracks. Wanzer came up with a steal and hit a basket. Wanzer then had the ball in her hands in the final possession of the half and hit a buzzer beater to give her team the 48-27 lead.
Claire Wanzer who lead her team with 24 points, will be playing basketball at Niagara University next year.
“She’s been playing since seventh grade, so she’s very comfortable with letting the game flow to her”, Chatelle said. “When she’s not open, she finds people.”
In the third, Clarence showed why they are the second place Class AA team in Section VI. The Red Devils went on a 9-0 run in the second. Theresa Bienko made a layup and was fouled. Bienko missed the chance at a three-point play, but teammate Ella Rose Eckert rebounded the ball and got the layup. Later, Cullinan came up with a steal off an Amherst inbound pass and found Ali DiGulio for the easy layup. Callaghan hit another three-pointer to cut the Tiger lead 52-44 lead. The Wanzer sisters helped to stop the bleeding a bit as Claire hit a three-pointer and Ella made a shot from the field. Despite the Red Devil surge, Amherst still lead 60-48 at the end of the third.
Eckert lead the Red Devils with 19 points.
“I was proud of how they came back and never let up but you have to play four strong quarters and the first was not strong”, Clarence Head Coach Erin Booker said. “We have a lot to work on.”
“We got out to a good start and we didn’t let a little run get us down”, Chatelle stated. “We battled.”
For the Tigers, the win was bigger than just another ‘W’ in the win column.
“We definitely wanted to come out and have a good game against Clarence after losing to Will South. Clarence like Will South has big post players”, senior Claire Wanzer said. “We needed to prove to ourselves we can handle teams like that.”
Eighth graders, Klein and Ella Wanzer lead the Amherst full court press defense which made moving the ball up the court difficult for Clarence and forced many turnovers.
According to big sister Claire, the work of Klein and younger sister Ella is a major relief.
“It helps because there is less pressure on the half court”, Wanzer said. “You don’t have to worry about scoring on every possession when you know that you can make it back on defense.”
“When younger kids do well in pressure packed games like this, they can only gain experience”, Chatelle said. “It’s nice to have a young core that’s pretty talented.”
Both teams will be back in ECIC action on Thursday. Amherst will head to Will East for a 6:30pm tipoff against the Flames and Clarence will host Jamestown at 7:30pm.
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