Girls Basketball | Aurora splits two against Suburban League opponents
Just when you get one aspect of the game fixed, another issue can often sneak up on a basketball team.
Aurora’s 49-40 league loss Saturday at Copley was just one of those type of contests.
That can happen when clubs like Aurora compete against a strong schedule and in a challenging league such as the Suburban League American Conference.
Defensive rotations were a step behind early on for the Greenmen as Copley vaulted to a 29-17 halftime lead.
As Aurora somewhat improved on the defensive end in the second half, turnovers and offensive efficiency remained as issues in the tough loss, which dropped the Greenmen to 6-7 overall to 6-4 in the rugged league.
Copley also hurt Aurora on the offensive glass.
“Overall, the girls played hard and gave effort, but it seemed like we were a step behind the whole game,” said coach Erika Greenberg.
“It seemed like we were really struggling defensively moving and rotating as a unit and we gave up way too many offensive rebounds to them,” Greenberg added. “Copley does a nice job moving the ball and looking for good shots, but we seemed a little flat defensively.”
Senior Ava Ryncarz led Aurora with 18 points while sophomore point guard Sam Stask popped in 14 points.
“We also struggled taking care of the ball and had way too many turnovers which has been an issue all season,” said Greenberg. “We need to be stronger with the ball and make better passes and reads.”
Copley (9-6, 7-4) was led by guard Shelby Emich with 15 points and guard Emily Kerekes, who tallied 13 points.
Host Aurora captured a huge 42-41 league victory over Revere (10-4, 7-3) on Jan. 19 after a tough 54-34 non-league road loss at powerful Eastlake North (12-1).
“I am so proud of the effort and fight our girls put into that game,” said Greenberg. “We started off the game down [7-0] but we were able to gain some composure and fight back. Overall, we had a great team performance and everyone contributed to the team victory.”
Ryncarz poured in a game-high 20 points, including eight free throws. Stask scored 14 points and had a solid floor game while sophomore guard Camryn Cohn chipped in five points.
“We had a lot of people step up and we rebounded the ball really well,” said Greenberg.
Revere was led by Audrey Livesay’s 14 points and freshman guard Paige Kelley’s nine points on the strength of three 3-point shots.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: The Aurora girls basketball team defeated Revere and lost to Copley.
