SALAMANCA — The Salamanca girls basketball team beat Olean 42-30 in a CCAA West matchup on Monday night.

The Warriors were ahead by as many as 20 points but the Huskies had a late run to give them trouble.

“We need to make sure we are playing from horn to horn,” Salamanca coach Joe Hinman said. “They went on a little run and hit some shots, that was a good win for us but we need to match that going forward.”

The Warriors opened the game great on the defensive end while slowly developing a comfortable lead. Olean scored its first points with 43 seconds left in the first quarter, but Salamanca was leading 9-2 at the end of the quarter.

The same pace of play continued with no one scoring since Olean’s first points until about halfway through the second quarter when Mackenzie Crouse got a steal and immediately made a layup for Salamanca.

The offensive struggles for the Huskies continued as they kept turning the ball over and the Warriors took advantage by scoring on the other end. Olean made two free throws with a second remaining in the half to make it 17-4 Salamanca going into halftime.

“Our team just loses focus, and they speed us up and we lose control,” Olean coach Chelsea Bowker said. “When we slow the game down we have all the time in the world. But when they speed us up we have trouble and we just turn it over.”

The Warriors took control coming out of halftime. They continued to build a stronger advantage with their lead growing to 28-8 with 2:18 left in the third quarter. Olean closed the quarter strong though with seven straight points, including five from Alaina Hirliman to make it 28-15 going into the fourth quarter.

“In the half Hirliman told me she wasn’t shooting anymore,” Bowker said. “I said we aren’t making shots anyways, so you better keep shooting.”

Salamanca didn’t let the momentum carry into the early minutes of the fourth. They held strong and had a 36-22 lead with 3:40 left in the game. Olean made two quick three-pointers to cut the lead to eight points which forced the Warriors to play hard down the stretch.

“We kind of let them crawl back into it,” Hinman said. “I think we got too complacent, too comfortable.”

It never got any closer than that though as Salamanca (4-3) finished the game with a 42-30 victory. Crouse led the Warriors scoring with 12 points while Leilene McComber and Skyla Dowdy reached double digits with 10 points.

Hirliman led the Huskies (1-8) scoring with 12 points while Anna Bates added nine.

“My team has shown tremendous growth,” Bowker said. “My team did what I asked, we outrebounded them and we held them to 42 points.”

Next up for Salamanca is an away game against Fredonia on Friday. Olean hopes to find a win on the road Friday at Southwestern.

“We are never really satisfied,” Hinman said. “We work to try and get better each day, it starts at practice and we need to make sure we are working hard there. Hopefully it translates to the game.”

AT SALAMANCA

Olean (30)

Finch 1 2-2 4, Hirlimen 4 2-2 12, Bates 3 2-6 9, Battle 2 0-0 5. Totals: 10 6-10 30.

Salamanca (42)

Wass 2 0-2 4, Crouse 4 4-4 12, Dowdy 3 2-2 10, McComber 3 4-6 10, Lafferty 2 0-0 4, Ross 1 0-0 2. Totals: 15 10-14 42.

Olean 2 2 11 15

Salamanca 9 8 11 14

Three-point goals: Olean 4 (Hirlimen 2, Bates, Battle), Salamanca 2 (Dowdy 2).

Fouls: Olean 10, Salamanca 13. Fouled out: None.