Bartlett turns the tables on Metea Valley
When Metea Valley defeated Bartlett in a high-scoring game on Jan. 31, the Mustangs were 32-for-41 from the free-throw line.
On Friday night, on senior night in Bartlett, the host Hawks' No. 1 goal was to not let that happen again, and it didn't.
Metea Valley only got to the line 13 times but it wasn't because Bartlett didn't play defense. The Hawks helped Metea to 22 turnovers and had enough offense of their own to come away with a 41-36 Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division girls basketball win.
"We did a better job of limiting their ability to get to the free throw line," said Bartlett coach Denise Sarna. "Our second half defense was good but we had bouts where we rebounded poorly and I'm not happy with our turnovers."
The Hawks (17-8, 10-2) were able to overcome 24 turnovers with 15 of 35 shooting (42.8 percent), a stellar second half from junior Kaitlin Brohan and contributions from several players off the bench.
Brohan scored 11 of her team-high 14 points in the second half, including 7 in the fourth quarter when the Hawks put the game away.
"Our defense picked up a lot," said Brohan about the difference in last Saturday's 65-61 loss compared to Friday's win. "We played really good team defense. Our goal was to keep them under 20 in the second half and they had 13. They're a good team but I think we held our own tonight. It was a good team win."
"Kaitlin makes our team go," said Sarna. "She's one of our top scorers and rebounders every game."
Metea Valley sophomore Brianna Hall scored at the buzzer to give the Mustangs (13-12, 7-6) a 21-18 halftime lead but Bartlett won the third quarter 10-4 and the Mustangs didn't get closer than 4 in the fourth quarter. Brohan's basket with 5:11 left in the third gave the Hawks the lead for good at 24-23.
Bartlett extended the lead to 7 three times in the fourth quarter as junior Amia Akwiwu, junior Jamie Kenna and freshman Kayla Hare (10 points) contributed valuable minutes off the bench. Junior starter Kelly Harris had 7 rebounds and 4 blocked shots as the Hawks won the rebound battle 26-17.
Metea did make it interesting, though. Trailing 39-32, the Mustangs got back-to-back buckets from Hall (15 points), the second coming off a quick steal after she had scored, that brought it to a 39-36 game with eight seconds to play.
But, fittingly on senior night, the Hawks' lone senior, Lauren Janczak, calmly sank 2 free throws with 5.3 seconds left to seal the win for Bartlett.
"I don't think we came out ready to play in the first half," said Metea Valley coach Cedric Williams. "That's been a staple of ours all year and we gotta figure that out. Our defense is OK but we gotta move on offense. But the biggest thing is coming out ready to play. It's hard for me to believe when you have so many seniors. It's not all of them but we gotta get everybody on the same page."