High school sports: OFA, Lisbon in Section 10 Girls Basketball Tournament

Top seeded Gouverneur will host fourth seeded Salmon River on Friday.

Seventh-seeded Lisbon raced out to a 29-6 first quarter lead over ninth seeded Parishville-Hopkinton and moved into Sunday’s quarter-final Class D Arama at Potsdam High School with a 74-42 victory. The Golden Knights will play second seeded Chateaugay at 2:45 p.m. after Heuvelton faces off with St. Regis Falls at 1 p.m,.

The other preliminary game of Wednesday night saw Harrisville defeat Colton-Pierrepont 52-33 to move into a quarter-final match with top seeded Hammond at 7:45 p.m. Hermon-DeKalb and Edwards-Knox will play at 6 p.m..

DEVILS ADJUST

While dealing with the fired up and sharp-shooting Stoners (7-14) who opened leads of 11-2 and 15-8 in the first quarter, OFA Coach Shannon LaFave also had to adjust to foul trouble to guard Amya LaFlair.

Forward Olivia Merrill was asked to take on major ball handling duties and responded by taking the ball to the basket and scoring on consecutive trips down the court late in the first period and netting eight points second quarter. She finished with a team-high 23 points, 13 rebounds and four assists with a series of coast-to-coast runs to the rim with defensive rebounds

The Devils (11-10) cut the difference to 15-12 after one quarter and pulled into a 26-26 tie at half.

The surge of momentum carried over to second half where the Devils’ controlled both backboards and eventually gained a 43-32 scoring advantage, took a 56-46 lead with 5:10 to play and then closed on a 13-4 run when Potsdam cut the difference to 61-54 with two minutes to play.

Converting on runs through trafific Amya LaFlair scored six points in the first and fourth quarters, finished with 21 points and grabbed five defensive rebounds. Abby Raven scored nine of her 17 points in the fourth quarter, grabbed 10 rebounds, went 5-5 from the foul line, passed out four assists and blocked or deflected several shots and Jaedyn Awan also played a vital role on the boards with eight points, eight rebounds and three assists.

Guard Salwa Hmyene played a key role in the Stoners’ fast start and fourth quarter comeback bid hitting six 3-pointers in scoring a game-high 28 points. Emma Brosell’s cafty shot-making produced 13 points and Lola Buckley added eight points. Trinidy Brothers, Taiti Burks-Carista and Jamemison McKnight scored four, two and three points.

“That is a lot of responsibility to take on by Olivia (Merrill) and she did it very well. This was a big win for the girls to get to the B finals and we have a week and a half to get ready,” said Coach LaFave.

“Potsdam played very well and their JV players certainly had an impact on the game.”

KNIGHTS ROLL

Guards Allison Bell and Leah Warren combined for 11 and 8 points and center Rachel LaRock also tallied 8 in the first quarter for Lisbon (13-8). Bell and LaRock went on to score 26 and 20 points and Warren finished with 10.

Gabby Taylor buried three 3-pointers n a 13-point effort and other scoring came from: Grace Smith (1) and Cayleigh Smith (4).

Marygrace Guiney buried four 3s scoring 12 points to lead P-H (2-17) and Natalie Snell and Emma Phippen each netted nine points. Other scoring came from Kylie Kirk (6), Baileyu Warren (4) and Parker (2).