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By Scott Franco
sfranco@altoonamirror.com
HOLLIDAYSBURG -- When you want to get back to the PIAA 1A finals, which is where the Juniata Valley girls basketball team was a year ago, you want to get off to a good start in your state tournament playoff opener. The Lady Hornets can check that off their list now.
Behind Halee Smith and Maddie Mattas, Juniata Valley jumped out to a 19-2 first-quarter lead on Saturday against District 9's Otto-Eldred and cruised to a 65-28 victory at Hollidaysburg Area Senior High School.
"We watched the film. We knew they were extremely athletic and have a lot of kids that can do some amazing things, and they do," Lady Terrors coach Barb Close said. "They have really good shooters, and we kind of hoped we could hang with them better."
Halee Smith finished with 23 points, including nine in the first quarter. Mattas finished with 11 points, including six in the opening frame. They scored the first nine points of the game. The only bucket scored against Valley was at the 3:32 mark by Camryn Thomas.
"I think that is really our focus now, the defensive end, and if we can come out with that kind of focus and intensity, our offense will be even better," Juniata Valley coach Rachelle Hopsicker said. "Our kids were working hard, weak-side rebounding, clearing people out of the lane like a college team. I can't ask them to do anything else."
Smith, who was 11-for-11 from the field in the game, continued her offensive assault in the second quarter, scoring eight more points. Her bucket at the 4:50 mark made it 28-3 against Otto-Eldred's man defense.
"I figured they would be in a 2-3 zone a couple of minutes into the game but they didn't," Hopsicker said.
Halee Frederick came off the bench to nail two 3-pointers for the Lady Terrors (21-5) but still found themselves down at halftime, 35-12. Thomas, who averages 17 points a game for the school that is just 10 miles from the New York state border, had just two in the first half. She finished with four.
"Their big girl was that matchup that was going to be tough for us. She is really athletic and gets a lot of and-ones. She's an all-state player," Hopsicker said. "We were trying to get ahead of her everytime she moved. Halee had her the entire game and really limited her. She really had an amazing game for us."
Frederick wound up the leading scorer for the Lady Terrors with 11 points.
"The girls who normally are our leading scorers were not on tonight," Close said. "We missed a lot of chippies early on."
Sydney Reed finished with 20 points for the Lady Hornets (23-3), including 10 in the fourth quarter.
"With our offense sometimes, if we play a weaker team, the ball does not get back around to her because we find someone before," Hopsicker said.
Game notes: Juniata Valley plays Berlin Brothersvalley on Wednesday. Berlin, out of District 5, beat Quigley Catholic Saturday. … Taylor Leidy had eight assists for Valley. … Mattas pulled down five of Valley's 24 rebounds. …Otto-Eldred hit on just 22 percent of its shots from the field. …Thomas led Otto-Eldred with seven rebounds.
OTTO-ELDRED (28): A. Cousins 3 1-2 8, Shelander 0 0-0 0, Greeley 2 1-2 5, Spinne 0 0-0 0, Thomas 2 0-0 4, E. Smith 0 0-0 0, A. Smith Frederick 3 2-2 11, Raught 0 0-0 0, Heller 0 0-0 0. Totals -- 10 4-6 28.
JUNIATA VALLEY (65): Leidy 1 3-4 5, Taylor 1 0-0 2, S. Reed 6 4-4 20, H. Smith 11 0-0 23, Mattas 5 1-2 11, L. Reed 0 0-0 0, O. Smith 2 0-0 4, Jefferis 0 0-0 0, Musser 0 0-0 0, Hopsicker 0 0-0 0. Totals -- 26 8-10 65.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Otto-Eldred 2 10 6 10 -- 28
Juniata Valley 19 16 12 18 -- 65
3-point goals: Otto-Eldred 4 (Frederick 3, A. Cousins), Juniata Valley 5 (H. Smith, S. Reed 4)
Records: Juniata Valley (23-3), Otto-Eldred (21-5)
Officials: Scott Johnson, John Mansel, Brad Martz