Gowanda’s only lead of the game came from Crissa Scanlan scoring the game’s first points at the charity stripe, but after that it was all Frewsburg which started to apply defensive pressure that Gowanda (4-1) could not handle. Frewsburg (6-1) implemented a full-court press right at the first inbound pass, never giving Gowanda a chance to get comfortable in the game.

“Gowanda is definitely bigger than us,” Frewsburg head coach Jeff Collver stated, “so we knew we wanted to spread the floor and make it more of a full-court game rather than allow them to sit back in their zone. We’re smaller and fast and pretty good perimeter shooters so that is kind of our game plan. … We like to play that go, go, go, go.”

Frewsburg got up 10-3 thanks to the press and 3-pointers from Teghan Trocki and Ava Jimerson. In the first quarter, Frewsburg outscored Gowanda 21-7 and it was led by Ava Jimerson with 9 points, which was the start of a career night for her as she finished with 19.

The Bears’ aggressive style of play didn’t stop at on-the-ball defense, it continued in every facet of the game and proved very helpful on the offensive glass when fighting for rebounds. Despite being a smaller team than Gowanda, Frewsburg hustled after the missed shots and continued to extend offensive possessions before ultimately scoring. Dominating the glass was Tyra Clark who grabbed 12 rebounds. Ava Jimerson had seven, Kaydan Bush had six and Trocki grabbed four.

Gowanda’s Aailyah Stevens takes a shot over Frewsburg’s Kaydan Bush during Tuesday’s game. OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms

In the first half, Frewsburg’s rebounding was more crucial when the shots were not falling like expected.

“We weren’t shooting our best in the first half,” Collver said about the offense. “We got our rhythm going much better in the second half. I was subbing differently than I usually do… it was throwing the kids off a little bit, but they got used to it in the second half.”

Frewsburg’s offense started to pick up the pace in the second half, continuing to benefit from the press and on-ball defense. Frewsburg’s leading scorer, Elise Sposato, had a strong third quarter scoring 9 of her 22 points while the Bears put up 19 in the frame to take a commanding 50-26 lead into the fourth quarter. The Bears defense really racked up the steals with Trocki collecting seven, Taytum and Ava Jimerson both grabbing five, Clark recording four, and both Sposato and Madigan Collver adding three.

Gowanda had a difficult first half, struggling to get anything going on offense in the face of Frewsburg’s press. Improvement came at halftime which showed in an uptick in scoring — Gowanda outscored its first half total of 12 points in just the third quarter — but that wouldn’t be enough as Frewsburg’s offense continued to roll.

“They were starting to understand how to beat that full-court press,” Gowanda head coach Ross John stated. “Also they started to understand the half-court press. We haven’t had a lot of preseason games where we’ve seen it, so it was good in this tournament to see it.”

Gowanda’s leading scorer was Gao:Wisa:S Stevens with 10 points, including two 3-pointers, and Aailyah Stevens added 8 points.

“This tournament is always very competitive,” added John. “We knew that coming in. It gives us the opportunity to work some of the bugs out. We still have got a ways to go, we are still trying to find our identity.”

Frewsburg’s 69-34 victory sets up a date with Sherman in tonight’s championship game at 6.

GOWANDA (34)

GStevens 4 0 10, Pupo 0 0 0, Rivera 2 0 4, Lindgren 1 0 2, Montour 0 0 0, AStevens 4 0 8, Nephew 1 0 2, Luther 2 0 4, Scanlan 1 2 4. Totals 15 2 34.

FREWSBURG (69)

Trocki 3 0 8, Bush 3 1 8, Clark 2 4 8, TJimerson 0 0 0, Sposato 10 0 22, AJimerson 8 2 19, Collver 1 2 4. Totals 27 9 69.

3-point goals — GStevens 2, Trocki 2, Sposato 2, AJimerson, Bush.

Gowanda 7 5 14 8 — 34

Frewsburg 21 10 19 19 — 69