Strong defense sparks Hawks in home win

Cyvannah Doll (12) of Lynnville-Sully gets fouled by Tilly Schmidt of English Valleys on a putback opportunity in Friday’s opener. Doll led the Hawks with 15 points in a 56-54 victory. Ben Frotscher/Daily News

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SULLY — What a way to start the season. Lynnville-Sully had three players score in double-figures Friday night, but it was defense that got it done at crunch time. The Hawks held English Valleys scoreless in the final 3:20 of the game to come away with a 56-54 victory to open the girls basketball season. “They had a lot of heart, a lot of desire, a lot of effort,” said L-S coach Jerry Hulsing. “There were a lot of times where we could have folded the tents up and gone home, but they kept battling and fighting. We did just enough to get over the hump.” The Hawks looked tough early on, using runs of 7-0 and 8-0 to build a 17-10 lead. That lead was built with three 3-pointers in the first quarter — two from Tara Van Rees and another from Cyvannah Doll — but Lynnville-Sully made just one 3-pointer the rest of the game. A 9-2 run in the second quarter brought English Valleys to a 28-26 lead after a jumper by Emily Warwick, the game was tied at 34 entering halftime. And the Bears continued their rampage in the third quarter, taking the largest lead of the game at 47-40 after Jordan Higgins made a pair of free throws. But that’s when the Hawks started to rally behind a 1-3-1 zone defense. “We were getting beat on dribble penetration, and we weren’t rotating on the help defense,” said Hulsing. “We thought we were giving up too many easy buckets without a hand in a face. We tried to just change the pace and gave us a possession or two to get our offense going and get a score.” To start the fourth quarter, Lynnville-Sully went to that 1-3-1 zone defense and English Valleys coach Brian O’Neill said his team struggled with it. “I had a gut feeling that we’d see some zone tonight,” said O’Neill. “I felt pretty good about our man-to-man offense, and when they came out in the 1-3-1 zone, our girls didn’t adjust very well.” Back-to-back shots by freshman Brianna James inside brought the Hawks within three, and just one minute later, James put back an offensive rebound to tie the game at 49 with 5:04 remaining. From that point on, neither team had a lead larger than one possession. The Hawks took the lead for good on a Doll putback to make it 55-54 with 1:55 remaining. James made 1-of-2 free throws after an English Valleys turnover, and after each team turned the ball over, the Bears had a fastbreak opportunity to tie the game. Higgins was fouled on a putback opportunity with 1.2 seconds left but missed the front end. She purposely missed the second free throw, and the Bears couldn’t recover the ball as time expired. For the game, Doll led the Hawks with 15 points while James added 13. Van Rees also was in double-figures with 12. English Valleys shot 50 percent from the field while Lynnville-Sully was just 35 percent, but 18 offensive rebounds kept the Hawks in the game. Up next for Lynnville-Sully (1-0) is a conference road matchup at BGM Tuesday.

at Sully Lynnville-Sully 56, English Valleys 54

Score by quarters EV 13 21 11 9 — 54 LS 17 17 5 17 — 56

L-S individual statistics Cyvannah Doll 4-14 6-6 15, Brianna James 6-9 1-2 13, Tara Van Rees 4-12 1-3 12, Danielle Samson 2-5 1-3 5, Tessa Engle 2-4 1-2 5, Mariah Terlouw 0-7 3-6 3, Taylor Van Wyk 1-2 0-0 2, Caitlin Cross 0-1 1-2 1. Totals 19-54 14-24 56. 3-point goals — 4-12. Rebounds — 28 (Doll 7, James 7). Assists — 11 (Terlouw 5). Steals— 15 (Van Rees 4). Blocked shots — 1. Team fouls — 19. Fouled out — Samson.