by Eva Gucker
Playing an exceptional game against an unfamiliar team from a bigger, more powerful conference, Pittsford will move on after beating Cascades Conference member
Manchester 62-47 in the first round of districts.
Against
Manchester’s size advantage, Pittsford had to be disciplined defensively by always having proper positioning and again utilize positioning and work to get rebounds.
"The girls did a great job finding bodies and limiting Manchester's possessions and shots," said Coach Hoover. Most of the game, Pittsford was able to do this, which left
Manchester with few scoring opportunities and they grew increasingly frustrated as the game wore on.
Pittsford pressed full-court, which forced
Manchester out of an organized offense for much of the game. The success that
Manchester had was mostly with ball movement to the inside, but because Pittsford let
Manchester have very few offensive rebounds, if the shots didn’t fall for the Flying Dutch they didn’t have a second chance.
Offensively, Pittsford had great ball movement against
Manchester’s zone early, but really shined when
Manchester went to man-to-man in the second half.
“We did really well and we were sharing the ball a lot,” said junior Brittney Houser.
The ball moved inside and around the perimeter.
Senior Marisa Hamilton had an exceptional game and went on the tie the school record for scoring with 34 points, also pulling down 12 boards against players far bigger than most of Pittsford’s.
Houser played the best game of her career, taking it right at Manchester’s large, physical posts, and scored 12 points. Junior Katelyn Kipfmiller was held under double-digits in points, scoring seven, but more than made up for that by dishing out a team season-high in assists with nine. "We got important contributions from every girl that stepped on the floor, whether it was a timely 4th quarter basket from Alexis Cramer, to Eva Gucker's three assists and four steals, to a clutch 4th quarter assist from Katie Stiver, to Ashley Buckner forcing two loose balls late in the game, to Elainee Poling giving us momentum with a quick bucket to start the game," said Coach Hoover.
Pittsford will go back to Hanover-Horton and play a high-pressure, run-and-gun team in the Addison Panthers. Game time is 6:00 p.m.
