Kiser leads Spartans past Dragons for CVC Lake win

Feb. 8—CONNEAUT — The Conneaut Spartans pulled away in the second half for a 52-34 Chagrin Valley Conference Lake Division girls basketball on Wednesday night at Conneaut High School.

Sophomore Alexis Kiser scored a career-high 19 points for the Spartans, and collected 11 rebounds.

Senior Kayla Farley

added 14 points and a

game-high 15 rebounds, and senior Finley Evans had 12 points.

Kiser finished the game shooting 7-for-17 from the field and hit four 3-pointers including three in the first half.

"I think it was trusting my shot and us being down our best player that's where I get more shots and they were going down tonight," Kiser said. "It feels great, especially coming off a tough loss against Saint John on Monday and it feels so great for our seniors and our entire team."

Conneaut coach Jayson Aponte was proud that his team bounced back after the loss against the Heralds on Monday night, and that his team stepped up with five players out for various reasons.

"We told [Kiser] at the beginning of the game that 'Hey this is your time and a lot of girls are out,'" Aponte said. "She put up a lot of big threes in the first half and she's also the point guard too and had a lot on her plate."

Aponte said first-year player senior Benedetta Bisinella had one point and 10 rebounds in limited playing and sophomore Raymie Fill scored two points.

"These are girls who haven't seen the floor much before and they contributed, it makes you feel good as a coach that they're able to step up, especially with short numbers," Aponte said.

He was also pleased with the effort by Farley, who came on strong later in the game.

"She kept on it and she knows what she's good at," Aponte said. "It was good to see her with some of her shots falling."

The Spartans grabbed

the lead early and had a

9-3 advantage after the first quarter.

Lakeside went on an 8-2 run to tie the game at 11-11 when junior Onesty Anderson scored on a layup.

Kiser then scored

on a layup with 3:50

left in the first half to give the Spartans a 13-11 lead and Conneaut never trailed again.

The Spartans built

a 21-17 lead at halftime and then pulled away in the third quarter outscoring the Dragons 15-5 to take a 36-21 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Spartans improved to 9-12 on the season and 5-8 in the CVC, while the Dragons fell to 1-18 overall and 0-12 in the conference.

Conneaut shot

19-for-63 (30.16%)

from the field and made eight three-pointers while Lakeside made 15 of 53 shots (28.30%) and hit two 3-pointers.

The Spartans shot 6-for-14 (42.86%) from the free-throw line and the Dragons made 2 of 6 (33%) attempts from the charity stripe.

Anderson led

the Dragons with 17 points.

Senior Jelena Torrance scored seven points and freshman AnnaMae Walter had six.

"I think we came

out a little slow, but we had a good second quarter," said Lakeside coach Nicole Grimmett. "We got outrebounded. They had quite a few offensive rebounds and putbacks where if we grab some of those boards it's a different game.

"[Kiser] got hot and we struggled. We had some good shots and took some good shots in the first half, but really couldn't get them to fall."

NEXT UP

Both teams are

scheduled to play Saturday.

Conneaut is at Edgewood, while Lakeside hosts Perry.