Heralds pull away from Spartans in fourth quarter to post win
Feb. 6—CONNEAUT — In a game featuring big runs by each team, the Saint John Heralds pulled away to start the fourth quarter for a 60-48 win Monday over the Conneaut Spartans in non-conference girls basketball action at Conneaut High School.
Sophomore Mickey Zheng led the Heralds with a career-high 22 points, including 15 points in the second half. She also had at least six assists.
Alexa Jordan and Alyssa Cevera, both had 17 points. Cevera also grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds.
Zheng said she was able to drive into the lane, figuring she would kick it over to an open teammate, but more often than not the layup was there for her to score.
"Assists are my main thing, I care about assists more than anything," Zheng said. "I love passing it to my teammates and they're the ones who make it which makes me happy and completes my work."
Saint John coach Nick Iarocci said Zheng is a great teammate and recognized the Spartans were trying to keep Cevera from getting shots.
"[Coach] Jayson [Aponte] does a great job with Conneaut and if I were him, I would try to take away Alyssa too," Iarocci said. "We went to our other options and the kids stepped up."
Iarocci said the Heralds often run hot and cold during a game, but work to play the game the right way regardless of what the scoreboard shows.
"We try not to get caught up in the score whether we're winning by 40 or down by 40 or down by one or up one we just try to play the game the same way all the time and over the course of a season that really pays off," Iarocci said.
Conneaut came out cold and missed its first 10 shots in the game and fell behind 6-0. The Spartans eventually tied it up at 6-6 with 2:07 left in the first quarter when sophomore Alexis Kiser made a free throw.
Saint John closed the quarter leading 13-8 and held a 24-16 lead midway through the second quarter. The Spartans then went on an 8-0 run to tie the game at 24-24 with 1:12 left before halftime.
The Heralds took a 26-25 advantage into the locker room but the Spartans went on a 7-2 run to take the lead at 32-28 midway through the third quarter.
However, Saint John responded with a 12-0 run to regain the lead and go up 40-28 late in the third quarter.
The Heralds led 42-36 heading into the fourth quarter and then scored the next nine points to pull away for the win.
"That run in the third quarter killed us," Aponte said. "We fed into it and we helped them. A lot of bad shots, a lot of turnovers, not helping out on defense. It was a bad game all around and a very frustrating game."
The Heralds improved to 10-9 on the season, while the Spartans fell to 8-12.
St. John shot 22-for-64 (34.38%) from the field and made six 3-pointers, while Conneaut made 16 of 62 shots (25.81%) and converted seven 3-pointers.
The Spartans shot 9-for-21 (42.85%) from the free-throw line and the Heralds made 10 of 13 (76.92%) shots from the charity stripe.
Conneaut was led by senior Kayla Farley, who had 11 points and 19 rebounds.
Kiser also had 11 points, while freshman Alexis Warner added 10. Freshman Maddy Drew grabbed 13 rebounds.
The Spartans got into some foul trouble as Kiser fouled out late in the third quarter forcing other players who were not used to that role to become the team's primary ballhandlers in the fourth quarter.
"I gambled by keeping her in, but we had no ballhandlers, so I had no choice and when she went out they started pressing us and they got four turnovers quickly," Aponte said.
NEXT UP
Both teams will play home games on Wednesday night.
Conneaut wii play Lakeside, while
Saint John takes on Bristol.
