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Stoney Creek’s defense leads the way to 50-28 win over rival Rochester Adams
Rochester – When Kellen James took over as the girls basketball coach at Stoney Creek heading into this season, he didn’t want to change too much for a program that has had plenty of success in recent years.
But one of the changes that was made going into this season was to its defense, as the Cougars now feature a full-court pressure defense.
And on Friday night, the new defense was on full display as the Cougars opened up league play against rival Rochester Adams.
Stoney Creek shut out Adams in the third quarter and held the Highlanders to without a basket in the first 10 minutes of the second half as the Cougars cruised to a convincing 50-28 win.
“I think part of the things that play into our hands is the way that we play,” James said. “We like to pressure the ball. When I came in and the first time I talked to the girls, I told them we’re going to come out and play 32 minutes of basketball. That’s our number one goal every day, come out and fly around.”
Opening up the second half with an already comfortable 29-14 lead, behind its defense, Stoney Creek saw its lead increase to 40-14, behind seven points in the quarter from Emma Sobczynski, who scored six straight points at one point.
Sobczynski led all scorers with 15 points, while Kayla Goisdzinski added in 12 points and five rebounds and Courtney Eckhout contributed 12 points and five assists in the win.
Stoney Creek (2-0) would watch its lead grow to 42-14 in the fourth quarter, before Adams (0-2) would end its scoreless drought on a Mikayla Smith free throw with 6:34 left to play.
Goisdzinski said that she felt that her team’s defensive pressure started to wear on Adams in the second half and also added that through two games this season, she’s seen the Stoney Creek defense lead to more fast break opportunities on the offensive end.
“Our press really got to them mentally, and our hard work” said Goisdzinski.
“We’ve definitely gotten to teams mentally and physically. It makes us work harder and allows us to get out on the fast break more.”
James said that he was obviously pleased with his team’s defensive play on Friday night and added that Adams may have not been expecting the type of defensive pressure that his team displayed throughout the game.
“I think it was just our pressure,” he said. “I don’t think that they were really ready for the pressure that we were going to bring and it was unrelenting, it wasn’t here and there. We stayed in the same defense the whole time and I think part of that credit goes to the girls that played on our one line.”
In the first quarter, it was the Stoney Creek offense that found success early on as the Cougars took an 18-8 lead into the second quarter, behind six points from Sobczynski and four points from Goisdzinski.
Goisdinski said that getting out to the fast start was a key to Friday’s game.
“It was definitely important,” she said. “We like to run the ball a lot, we like to get out on the floor and push the ball with our press and it works.”
In the second quarter, Stoney allowed just two field goals and six points from Goisdinski helped the Cougars take a 15-point lead into halftime.
