The Rochester Warriors 13 and under AAU basketball team traveled to Ithaca to play in the 14-year-old bracket of the 15th annual Central New York AAU Girls Basketball Classic. The Warriors battled hard to live up to their name and swept the competition in four straight games to bring home the championship. The first game pitted the Warriors against the 14U Western New York Lady Lakers. This was a tough battle that saw the Warriors leading by just two points at half time (26-24). In the second half, the Warriors played tough defense led by Renee Metzger and held the Lakers to 13 points while putting 18 points in the score book for the Warriors, including a clutch shot by Emily Savino and a three point shot from Felicia Allen to win the game 44-37. Leading scorers for the Warriors were Kelly Legg (12), Chelsey Cole (9) and Becky Hebert (8). After a two hour break, the Warriors were pitted against the Unity Wildcats. The Warriors team carried over their torrid defense effort and held the Wildcats to just nine first-half points, led by the stellar defense of Barbra Bianchi. The Warriors won, 41-37, Legg led the scoring with 12 points, followed by Jess Graen with 11 and Becky Hebert with nine. On Sunday morning, the Warriors ran into a talented Southern Tier New York Flyers team. It didn't look good for the Warriors, with the Flyers having a commanding 21 to 10 lead on the Warriors at halftime. The Warriors made some adjustments at the half and relied on their intense man-to-man defense to stymie the Flyer Offense and hold them to just six points in the second half. The team defense caused 19 turnovers while Graen blocked 13 shots. Felicia Allen hit critical three point shot and Cassie Gay added two second half points to help the Warriors win the game 36 to 27 and put them one game away from the Championship. Leading scorers were Legg with 16 points and Graen with 13 points (11 in the second half). Kevin Legg, head coach, said, "The Flyers are a good team, but that is the type of competition you expect when you play in the higher age bracket." Legg said, "We actually had a lot of confidence at half time, we knew the girls could do it, they just had to play good defense and take it one possession at a time." The Championship was decided in the final game against the host team, the Upstate Ladies. Defense, again, was the story of the game with Rochester allowing the Upstate Ladies just eight points in the first half, thanks to play of Jessie Ingersoll and only 10 points in the second half. The Warriors held the Ladies to less than a 20 percent shooting percentage from the field, while recording 10 blocked shots. The Warriors won, 33 to 18, Becky Hebert led all scorers with 10 points while Graen and Legg both added six. During the tournament, the Warriors defense blocked 32 shots, forced over 61 turnovers, while outscoring their opponents 132-101. July 23, 2006 |
