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Battle For 1st

2nd-Quarter Run Sends Bears Past Randolph

Frewsburg’s Taytum Jimerson puts up a jumper over Randolph’s Zoey Dickerson during Friday’s CCAA Division 1 East girls basketball game at Frewsburg Middle/High School. P-J photo by Matt Spielman

FREWSBURG — The first quarter of Friday night’s game felt like a first-place showdown.

The second quarter did not.

Frewsburg went on a 19-0 run to turn a two-point deficit into a 17-point lead en route to a 64-46 victory over Randolph in a Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 1 East showdown at Frewsburg Middle/High School.

“It’s no secret that we are two teams that are hopefully going to be there in the end,” Frewsburg head coach Sierra Beaver said. “It’s an exciting one. It’s the reason you play, to play in games like this.”

The Bears (13-2, 5-0), ranked No. 2 in Class C by the New York State Sportswriters Association this week, went 8 for 19 from the field, hit four 3-pointers and did not turn the ball over during their 21-point second quarter.

Randolph’s Skylar Herington shoots a jumper over Frewsburg’s Teghan Trocki (2) and Ava Jimerson (24) during Friday’s CCAA Division 1 East game in Frewsburg. P-J photo by Matt Spielman

“We were moving the ball, we weren’t selfish and we were finding people,” Beaver said. “We were physical and strong with the ball, finding shooters and we were hitting our shots.”

At the other end, the fourth-ranked Cardinals (8-6, 3-1) hit just 3 of 11 field-goal attempts and turned the ball over nine times, leading to 14 points for Frewsburg. All four of the Bears’ 3-pointers in the quarter came off turnovers.

“Their press gave us issues. We turned the ball over 13 times in the first half and most of them were in the second quarter,” Randolph head coach David Pihlblad said.

“We gave them some easy stuff, they got in a rhythm, they got some easy buckets and we struggled there for a stretch. Their defense definitely was causing that.”

Freshman Jadyn Trocki led Frewsburg with 17 points — 11 in the game-changing second quarter — to go along with eight rebounds, six steals and three assists. Junior Teghan Trocki chipped in 14 points and six rebounds.

“Our press gets us going. Whenever we don’t press, we get stagnant,” Beaver said. ” … When we start pressing, we get running a little bit, get into the flow of the game and start finding shooters. … The confidence grows. That’s huge for us.”

The Bears turned their 11-point halftime lead into a 13-point lead after three quarters. They then went on an 11-0 run to start the fourth quarter — Teghan Trocki hit 3-pointers on three of the possessions — to essentially put the game away.

“They had a stretch in the first half where they hit a few back to back,” Beaver said. “It makes things easier when you are knocking down shots.”

Randolph freshman Skylar Herington, who entered the game averaging 23.4 points per game, was held to just 10 on a pair of field goals and six free throws.

“Our goal was to hold her to something where she doesn’t have a crazy number out there. … That exceeded the expectations for our defense,” Beaver said. “We knew one-on-one we weren’t going to be successful. It was going to be a whole team effort. We rotated girls on her all night long to keep fresh legs guarding her. It worked out.”

Randolph finished 16 of 53 from the field, including just 4 of 28 from 3-point range.

“We shot pretty poorly tonight. We’ve been in a little funk shooting the ball the last couple of games,” Pihlblad said. “We have some really good shooters on the team. Hopefully it just starts clicking.”

Juniors Quinn Pence and Sadie Steward also had 10 points apiece for the Cardinals, who will host Portville on Monday.

“We know that we have everything we want still in front of us,” Pihlblad said. “If we take care of business with the rest of the league, we have them at home at the end of the season and that gives us a share of the league title.”

Frewsburg, which has won 10 straight games since back-to-back losses to Class AA Hamburg and Class AAA Lancaster, visits Falconer on Monday. The Bears and Cardinals will meet again in their final regular-season game of the year Feb. 12 in Randolph.

“We keep saying we’re going to have to play this team probably three times,” Pihlblad said. “It’s going to be, I’m assuming, us and them in the sectional playoffs and that’s going to be the big one.”

NOTES: Frewsburg shot 26 of 52 from the field, including 8 of 19 from 3-point range, and turned the ball over 12 times. Junior Ava Jimerson had 11 points and five rebounds, while junior Taytum Jimerson had 10 points, seven assists, seven rebounds and three steals for the Bears. … Senior Zoey Dickerson grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked five shots, Pence had five assists and Steward grabbed eight rebounds for the Cardinals. … Elysse Gruber had 30 points and 19 rebounds for Frewsburg in the Bears’ 58-35 jayvee victory.

RANDOLPH (46)

Bowles 1 0 2, Pence 4 2 10, Herington 2 6 10, Bushey 2 0 6, Steward 4 0 10, Dickerson 3 2 8. Totals 16 8 46.

FREWSBURG (64)

JTrocki 7 1 17, TTrocki 5 0 14, Conlan 3 0 6, TJimerson 4 1 10, Cappa 1 0 2, Harvey 1 2 4, AJimerson 5 0 11, Whippo 0 0 0. Totals 26 4 64.

3-point goals–Bushey 2, Steward 2, JTrocki 2, TTrocki 4, TJimerson, AJimerson.

Randolph 14 8 12 12 — 46

Frewsburg 12 21 14 17 — 64

Jayvees: Frewsburg won 58-35.

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