Lady Bearcats win on the road at B-C
FREDERICKTOWN – The Bentworth girls basketball team secured a critical Section 4-AA win on the road Thursday night at Beth-Center, hitting outside shots and outhustling their opponents in a 57-32 victory.
The Lady Bearcats (7-3, 2-1) have won six of its last seven games and broke a two-game slide against Beth-Center on the road.
“We told the kids that if we wanted to be there at the end of the section race, that tonight was a must-win,” Bentworth coach Stacy Skerbetz said. “I know it’s only the third game of the section, but we got enough offense and our defense had a stellar effort. This is a tough place to play, and we haven’t won here for two years. In our section, you have to win at home, but you also have to get a couple on the road.”
The Lady Bulldogs (5-4, 1-3) were not able to crash the boards and couldn’t sustain any consistent offense in the game.
“Tonight was the first night we got outrebounded in a game,” Beth-Center coach Steve Beyer said. “We usually depend on that to win games, but tonight it just wasn’t there. Give a lot of credit to Bentworth. They attacked the basket and crashed the board relentlessly.”
Bentworth jumped out to an 8-4 lead early in the game, and held a 13-8 lead at the end of the opening eight minutes.
The Lady Bearcats held an 11-5 scoring edge in the second stanza, and was up 24-13 at intermission.
Beth-Center fell behind early in the third period, as Bentworth marched out to a 10-4 run to make the score 34-17.
The Lady Bulldogs’ Anna Shashura got a bucket and a free throw to cut the deficit to 34-20, but that was the closest B-C would get as Bentworth scored eight consecutive points to end the third quarter and was up 42-20 with eight minutes remaining.
“We love to run,” Skerbetz said. “And we preached that if you want to run, it comes first on the defensive end. We usually play help-defense, but we also put pressure on them. We play 10 to 11 (kids) a game, so we can have fresh legs in the fourth quarter.”
In the fourth, B-C was finally able to crack double digit scoring in a quarter, but it was too little, too late, as Bentworth held a 15-12 scoring advantage in the final stanza.
Jessica Dorazio led the Lady Bearcats with 17 points. Dorazio was a factor in the transition game, as she had five fast-break buckets.
“Jessica is our star,” Skerbetz said. “She needs to put up a lot of shots, and she has the green light for whatever shot she wants to take. She’s versatile at driving to the hoop and shooting around the perimeter. She’s wild when she plays and we rely on her a lot.”
Darcy Bostich was the other scorer in double figures for Bentworth, as she totaled 12 points.
Shashura ended with a game-high 19 points, while Rachel Sabatini added eight.
“We have to run a better offense,” Beyer said. “We can’t be standing around. We have to be aggressive and play as a whole. You have to move without the ball and get open looks. This is a young team, and a lot of these girls they are seeing their first varsity action and it’s a learning process.”