After a disappointing loss on Thursday night, the Canton girls varsity basketball team bounced back to beat Owego Free Academy. Losing 50-28 to Westhill, the team felt this performance was far from satisfactory. On Friday, the girls came into the consolation game ready to comeback from possibly their worst performance of the season.
On Thursday, the Bears looked sloppy and frantic while Westhill was calm and confident. Canton struggled to find a spark on the offensive end of the court, however their second-half defense was relentless. With the inability to score points the game slipped away and Canton took their first loss of the year.
Friday’s effort looked like a new team. With a well thought out game plan, the team knew they just needed to execute and the Lady Bears rolled to a 60-47 victory. Canton focused on shutting down Owego’s star player, Kaci Donovan, who plans to play at Penn State next year. Katie Chisholm stepped up and played extraordinary defense, holding Donovan to 15 points.
Sarah Sieminski also had an exceptional game, scoring 22 points and coming out of the paint with many rebounds. Sieminski also did a nice job controlling the offense of the Bears and created many scoring opportunities for teammates. Chisholm scored 10 points, and Gretchen Warner and Maddie Hoy each scored eight. Canton was pleased with the performance of many members of their squad and hope to continue their mentality of grit.
With tenacious defense and composed offense, Canton had the recipe for success against a skilled Owego team. In future games, Canton hopes to continue their out hustle style of play and flat out speed to beat teams down the floor. The team also needs to work on their ability to generate offense when their shooters are not knocking down threes. After a hard loss, Canton is happy with their ability to have a short-term memory and come out ready to work the following day.
The Bears play at home on Monday, Jan. 6 against Potsdam. Game time is 7:15 p.m. and the team hope to start the year off with a win. Go Bears!
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