Mapletown cruises to victory over Lady Trojans
MAPLETOWN – For the second time in as many games, Mapletown forwards Erika Chory and Brittany Buckhalter scored in double figures as the Lady Maples cruised to a 69-29 victory over visiting California in Section 2-A girls basketball action on Thursday night. Buckhalter and Chory, who finished with 21 and 23 points respectively, powered the Maples (12-7, 5-3) to a 21-9 first-quarter lead.
“We needed this game to better our playoff standing, but we weren’t looking past California,” said Maples coach Linda Shultz, whose team has clinched a spot in the postseason. “Give California credit, their girls hustle and work hard.”
Experience proved to be the deciding factor in this game.
“With experienced players like Chory and Buckhalter, it’s hard to compete with the young team we have,” said California coach Jeremy Sellew. “They beat us with free throws tonight, and you expect a lot of fouls from a young team.”
Even though California (1-19, 1-7) has a very youthful team, Shultz knew that anything could happen.
“We knew coming into tonight’s game that we needed to be focused,” added Shultz. “Last year California surprised us and beat us by two.”
With many inexperienced players seeing playing time now, the Lady Trojans are building for the future.
“We are playing for experience, and I know it’s going to be tough on them right now,” added Sellew. “Our team is young and they will make mistakes, we just have to learn from those mistakes.”
Morgan Moluski finished led California with 12 points while Kristina Wagner added 5. Both players are freshmen and see significant playing time.
“There will always be nights like this, Kristina had a rough night,” added Sellew. “Morgan is shooting well for us and we need to move her around and get her more integrated into the offense.”
Mapletown averaged over 21 points per quarter after three quarters and shot 17-22 from the charity stripe.
“I was very pleased with our free throws tonight, but our rebounds were down,” said Shultz. “It’s nice to have players score in double digits, but as a team you always want balance.”
The Maples head to West Greene on Tuesday to face the Pioneers in another Section 2-A clash.
“It would be nice to better our playoff seeding,” said Shultz.
“But we just have to take it one game at a time.”