Kirtland needed every player on its bench to contribute in Tuesday’s 54-50 win over Perry.
Samantha Achauer led the Hornets with 19 points while Taylor Somodji pitched in with 13. Sydney Snyder added eight and four other Kirtland players found the hoop in the win.
“It was a great team effort,” said Kirtland coach Bob Bell. “It was a rather physical game. Our kids hung in there and played very well against what I think is a talented, aggressive team and a team that has some very good young players as well as an outstanding senior in Brittany Levkulich. It was just a hard fought game by both teams.”
Levkulich scored 17 for the Pirates.
Kirtland, which improved to 12-8 overall, led 29-23 at halftime. The Hornets used several second chance opportunities to build that lead.
“The battle of the boards was very close,” Bell said. “Our stats had us with 25 rebounds and they had 23, but it was a very physical game.
Both teams also shot the ball well.
Kirtland finished 21-of-43 for 49-percent while the Pirates finished the night at 44-percent from the floor.
“You can’t ask for a whole lot better shooting than that from high school kids,” Bell said. “Perry didn’t shoot bad either. I’m just glad we got 43 shots and they got 39.”
Grace Powers and Deanna Ponzani both scored five points for the Hornets to contribute to the balanced offensive performance.
“Our three leading scorers all contributed,” Bell said. “Sam had 19, Taylor with 13 and Sydney, I think she must like that number eight. She gets a lot of games where she scores eight points. We got five points out of Grace Powers and five out of Deanna Ponzani. It was pretty decent balance overall.”
The Hornets return to the court on Wednesday when they travel to Gilmour Academy in a preview of next week’s sectional semifinal.
While Wednesday’s game could help the Hornets build some momentum going into the postseason matchup it’s Saturday’s Chagrin Valley Conference finale that Kirtland is focused on.
“The tournament is coming up but really our focus now, we’ve got to go to Gilmour and play (on Wednesday), but our focus is that last CVC game at Fairport on Saturday,” Bell said. “That’s going to be a big one because if we win we get to share the title with Harvey and if we lose we come in second, the also rans.”
