Bringing her total to six three-pointers, with two in the final two minutes of play, Nathalie Gionet was unable to lift her Takhini Gas team above the Kopper Kweens as the latter took a close 52-51 win in Sunday’s women’s basketball at FH Collins Secondary.
“Offensively Nat Gionet is fantastic,” said Diedre Davidson, a Kweens’ player on loan from Feature Foods. “We had to shut her down and we just couldn’t tonight.
“That’s kind of her role, she seems to get those important three-pointers all the time.”
Gionet also ended the first half with a pair of three-pointers to put Takhini up 28-23, however, after a basket each to start the second half, the Kweens went on a nine-point run to regain the lead at 38-34.
“We had a sub, so we had some fresh legs coming in and off the court,” said Davidson. “And any time you go on a run, if they don’t stop it right away, you just continue in that direction.”
Leading the Kweens was Davidson with 15, Angella Ell (another borrowed player from Feature Foods) with 12 and Myranda Simpson and Sharlaina Bain with 10 each.
“Teams are starting to jive now they’re starting to know how each other is moving and people are getting used to playing with each other,” said Davidson. “So we’re seeing quite a bit of difference in scores.”
Not surprisingly, Gionet topped Takhini’s score sheet with 28 points while teammate Lariena Twardochleb put 14 points’ worth through the rim.
“It was a pretty good night,” said Gionet. “It was a good game. Both teams played with intensity, but we kept it clean.”
Feature Foods tops Chalets
As the players’ legs grew tired in the second half of play, the Feature Foods team resorted to long passes on fast breaks to rack up points. And why not? It worked just fine.
Ending the first half up by just 27-22, the Foods eventually expanded the points-spread to 52-36, picking up a win over Airport Chalet.
“It just seemed like a lot of us wanted to score really fast,” said Ell. “I think we were all getting pretty tired so we resorted to passing for quick buckets instead of running around.”
Despite playing in her second contest of the evening, Ell more than doubled her points from the first game, sinking 27 worth, 16 more than teammate Davidson.
Simpson, another back-to-back player, led the scoring for the Chalets with 15, while Adrianne Hill contributed eight.
“There were a lot of tired players because half of them played in the game before,” said Chalet’s Janelle Hardy. “Which made it a little easier for me to keep up.”
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@Iyukon-news.com