MOUNT VERNON – The Mount Vernon girls basketball team hung with Watkins Memorial for most of the first half. But a mixture of physicality on the boards and a ball-hawking press was too much for the Yellow Jackets to overcome in a 60-31 loss to Watkins in non-league play at the Hive on Saturday, Dec. 12.
Watkins had 23 steals — many coming out of a full-court press — and won the rebounding battle 38-30, with 22 boards coming on the offensive end to create second chances.
Jenna Lucas led the way with 12 points, 13 rebounds and four steals; Alyssa Haynes had 11 points, four steals and three rebounds; Alexa Pollack had 11 points and four rebounds; Alexia Gartner had eight points, seven steals, five rebounds and four assists; and Kalleigh Rennie added nine points to give Watkins a balanced effort.
“We try to be as well-rounded as we can,” Watkins coach Andrew Bobalik said. “I think our skill development is really, really good; and I think our girls work at it and continue to get better every day.”
“They’re very physical, they’re very strong, they play good man-to-man defense and they mix their zone press with their man-to-man press, which kind of gets you a little bit confused,” Mount Vernon coach Doug Savage said. “We did OK with it some, but I had us with 26 turnovers, and they convert off their steals quite often.”
Watkins opened the game 6-0 and never trailed. But MV was able to keep it close, down 10-8 after one quarter and 19-15 in the second before an 8-2 rally closed the half for Watkins.
“I thought when we got them into a five-on-five (situation) when we were on defense … we were OK,” Savage said. “We seemed to have a little bit of control there until they shot and missed, and then here they come attacking the boards on us.”
“All year, we’ve outrebounded every opponent that we’ve played,” Bobalik said. “We’re physically strong and we play extremely hard and I think that’s a lethal combination when you’re attacking the glass every possession.”
The teams exchanged baskets to open the second half before Watkins pulled away with a 9-0 run and added on from there.
McKenna Brokaw had 12 points and five rebounds; Olivia Reddy had five points, seven rebounds and two assists; and Cora Lepley, Stella Bainbridge and Sydney Lyons added four points apiece to pace the Jackets. Bainbridge added five rebounds, Addi Christopher pulled down four boards and Lepley had a pair of assists for MV.
“We competed for a while,” Savage said. “Quite frankly, we couldn’t get to the lane consistently all night long. They had pretty good control of us offensively.”
