Hornets down Spartans in opener for both teams
Nov. 19—CONNEAUT — The Kirtland Hornets used a 12-5 run in the second quarter to take control of the game and defeat the Conneaut Spartans 44-32 Friday night in non-conference girls basketball action.
The loss dropped the Spartans to 0-1, while Kirtland improved to 1-0 as the contest served as the season opener for each team.
Senior forward Natalie Glowe led Kirtland with 16 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Sophomore guard Emily Ridgeway added 15 points.
"[Emily Ridgeway] is going to have to play that role and be a scorer for us and she will have to play inside and outside," Kirtland coach Matt Ridgeway said. "I thought Natalie Glowe, our big who hadn't played for five years, did a tremendous job, especially in the first quarter."
Ridgeway was also pleased with the play of his senior point guard Corinne Greenlee.
"She handled all the pressure and was setting Natalie up," he said.
For Conneaut, senior guard Cory Szalai had nine points and seven rebounds and junior forward Kayla Farley added nine points and eight rebounds.
Sophomore forward Addie Kennedy scored five points and notched a team-high nine rebounds, and senior Laney Pasanen tallied five points for Conneaut.
The Spartans got off to a good start in the first quarter and took a 9-6 lead midway through the period. The Hornets hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 9 and from that point never trailed.
"We called the press off and we were trying to use it because we hadn't practiced much and wanted to get in shape too," Ridgeway said. "We were a little bit discombobulated with our rotations and didn't know who we had in transition on defense, those are things we can work on."
Kirtland led 30-21 at halftime and the Spartans never got closer than nine points behind for the remainder of the game.
"Actually, we didn't play poorly in the second half," said Conneaut coach Tom Ritari. "When we play the way we are going to play, the shots will start falling. We're a decent shooting team, it's just a matter of [our players] slowing their body down to shoot the ball. We want to play fast, but we want to play with some control to make shots."
The Spartans owned a 39-31 rebounding advantage, but the Hornets allowed Conneaut to only make nine field goals in the game.
"We had some decent performances rebounding-wise, but they had some size," Ritari said. "Give credit to them, they shot the ball very well, and their coach does a good job with them."
Both teams are scheduled to play on Tuesday.
Conneaut is at home vs Geneva on Tuesday, while Kirtland goes to Cornerstone Christian.
