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Calm Indians erase early deficit, top Triton

Saturday, December, 15 By John Shimer
Staff writer

Two teams that really struggled in their opening games, Triton and Amesbury, locked up for an entertaining, high-scoring affair last night, as the Indians beat the Vikings, 65-58.

Amesbury, which was thumped by Pentucket Tuesday, 57-19, looked as if it might get blown away again early with Triton jumping on the Indians 9-0 to start the game.

Led by the steady 3-point shooting of Breanna Comeau, who scored an Amesbury high 16 points, the Indians slowly chipped away at the lead.

By the second half, Amesbury was able to get hold of the lead. Come the fourth quarter, the Indians chalked up the win behind deadly accurate shooting from the free-throw line, especially Kendall Connors and Katie Hathaway.

"Oh boy, any win would be a good one after what happened Tuesday. Maybe we are just better without practice," said relieved Amesbury coach Chris Perry, whose team missed practice the last two days due to the storm and no available facilities on Wednesday. "Our free-throw shooting was huge down the stretch, and Bre's (Comeau) threes early in the game really got us back on track."

Undersized forwards Katie Hathaway and Dana Zahoruiko did an excellent job of hanging tough with the strong inside game of Triton. Perry said Zahoruiko really gave her team the spark it needed coming off the bench.

"We switched to a zone (defense) to slow things down, and Katie and Dana really did an excellent job," Perry said of the twosome's defensive effort. "Whenever you play Triton, you have to find Nikki Wurdeman because she can hurt you inside, and after our rough start those two did an excellent job."

Although the loss was the second straight for Triton, Vikings coach Karen Christian was pleased after the sluggish offensive performance against Newburyport in the opener. But Christian admitted there was still some room for improvement.

"Tonight we just did a much better job executing the game plan and really getting some second-chance opportunities. We more than doubled our previous score of 26," Christian said. "Now we just need to get back to the basics and fundamentals, especially on defense. Too often right now the girls are turning their heads, which lets the opposing team go by them, and we need to do a better job denying the ball at the point of entry."

Christian added sophomore forward and JV call-up Maxine Crossman played some vital varsity minutes, scoring six points for the Vikes.

For the game, four Indians scored in double digits: Comeau, Hathaway (15), Connors (12), and Colleen Brockmyre (10). On the Vikes side, Wurdeman had a game-high 22 points and Brittany Caprio finished with 10 after a solid fourth quarter.