CATTARAUGUS — Salamanca’s girls basketball team showed some fight, erasing a 10-point deficit, but Cattaraugus-Little Valley had a counter-punch.
The T-Wolves let a 23-13 third quarter lead evaporate over a three-minute stretch, but over the last minute of the quarter bounced back from 23-23 to a 31-23 C-LV lead at the end of the period. C-LV never trailed in a 39-30 nonleague victory Friday night.
“It was going to be nip and tuck and come right down to the end, I figured, because they had made some shots and they hit a three,” said T-Wolves coach Mike Jones. “We had some turnovers, but it was huge for us to have some response.
“If a team makes a run, we have to be smart and play our game.”
The 10-0 run showed Salamanca coach Pat Morgante some encouraging signs, even if the C-LV response swung the game back.
“You get the momentum going your way, score 10 straight and then right in that last 30 seconds they go back up eight,” said SHS coach Pat Morgante. “That was huge. But there were times this season and the previous season where we wouldn’t have went on a 10-0 run, so there’s some negative there but there’s positive signs that we did keep fighting.”
Senior Katie Jones scored 10 points with nine rebounds to lead C-LV, senior Taylor Stockman added eight points, nine boards and three blocks and Yukina Aokai had four steals.
Freshman guard Zoe Gross paced the Warriors (2-12) with 11 points. Senior Meagan Martin and junior Dessa Dowdy had eight rebounds each while junior Caryn Miller grabbed three steals.
The loss still showcased some improvements after C-LV took the teams’ first meeting, 48-32, at SHS.
“Our defense is a lot better,” said SHS coach Pat Morgante. “We play a lot harder. It’s taken us a little while to get to the point where we’re playing really hard, consistent defense. We’re playing hard, we’re a little more patient on offense and we’ve got some girls that have gotten better. Meagan Martin has never played basketball before in her life and she stepped up big tonight: even though we lost she probably played the best game of the season. My freshman, Zoe Gross, is doing some really good things. That’s just to name a few, but they’re all getting better.
“We just have to keep getting better. We can’t have a good game or a good quarter. It has to be progressing and keep improving.”
With seven games remaining, Jones said he things C-LV (6-7) has hopes to finish the regular season at or above .500 with 10 wins or more.
“In all of our league games, we played hard,” Jones said. “We play Franklinville again and Ellicottville and I just want us to play hard, which we did here.
“I would love as a goal for us to get to 10 wins. That would be huge. I don’t know when was the last time we did that in Cattaraugus. It’s been a few years.”
Salamanca (30)
Miller 3 0-0 6, Martin 2 0-1 4, McGonigle 2 0-0 4, Gross 4 3-6 11, Sherwood 2 0-0 4, Dowdy 1 0-0 3. Totals: 14 3-7 30.
Cattaraugus-LV (39)
B. Gostomski 1 0-0 2, Cannon 2 3-4 7, Stockman 4 0-0 8, Ryan 1 1-4 3, Krajenski 2 0-0 4, Aokai 1 0-0 2, Johnson 1 1-1 3, Jones 4 2-2 10. Totals: 16 7-11 39.
Salamanca 5 9 23 30
Cattaraugus-LV 6 15 31 39
Three-point goals: Salamanca 1 (Dowdy), C-LV 0. Total fouls: Salamanca 10, C-LV 11. Fouled out: Johnson.
JV: C-LV, 29-27.
