Reds return to finals

Newark avenged last year's sectional loss to Honeoye Falls Lima by beating HF-L 66 to 47 in last night's semi-final game. The Reds will play No. 1 Pittsford Mendon in Saturday's title game at 8 p.m. in Gates. The boys varsity has also moved to the next round and will play Pittsford Sutherland Saturday at 5 p.m. at the Blue Cross Arena.

Newark girls shake off bruising Geneva team in quarter finals

SECTIONALS: The Lady Reds used their superior  speed and height and - oh, yes, Alyssa Fenyn -  to earn a 76-46 victory over a physical Geneva team.

By JOHN ADDYMAN
john.addyman@yahoo.com

NEWARK - Alyssa Fenyn must have thought she was at the wrestling sectionals, not a basketball game. The Lady Reds used their superior speed and height Thursday, Feb. 26, plus a dose of senior leadership, to get through a 76-46 four-round bout with Geneva - minus the Marquess of Queensbury rules. 

The Panthers were rough-and- tumble the whole way, snarling and scrapping for every rebound and point in this Section 5 quarterfinal. Fenyn was a target. 

Geneva’s coach said the Panthers had no choice but to be physical. 

"What are we supposed to do as a smaller team?" asked Ed Collins. "We can’t allow a team to dominate us."

But the Reds dominated anyway. They led 23-7 in the first quarter and 42-18 at halftime. 

Fenyn, a 2,000-point career scorer on her way to Virginia Tech this fall, drew plenty of attention. She always had one Geneva player behind her and another fronting her.

It didn’t matter, though. Fenyn scored 30 points, grabbed eight rebounds, dished out five assists and blocked two shots. Those points moved her into third place on the Section 5 career scoring list with 2,375 points.

"When they pay that much attention to me," she said, "I dish it off. I tried to look for the open player - anybody on our team can score."

And most did. Nine Lady Reds scored, with Shakista Woolfolk dropping in 18 points, snagging seven rebounds and blocking five shots. Marissa Bunce drained four 3-pointers on her way to 14 points and Heather Virts had four points and six rebounds.

The game was one-sided in the first half, but the Panthers kept pace in the second, with Newark outscoring Geneva 34-28.

"We had 14 to 16 missed shots within three feet of the basket in the first half," said Collins. "It’s tough to come back when you miss that many. We got a lot of offensive rebounds, but missed the put-backs. You can’t do that against a good team like Newark."

Newark coach Diane Kirnie started the game with a box-and-one defense, with Fenyn shadowing senior Geneva guard Jenni Robbins everywhere. Robbins had two points in the first half and ended the game with 10. Brianne Johnson led the Panthers with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Kirnie said Geneva came to play.

"They’re a feisty, tough bunch and they were tough on the boards," she said. She said the treatment Fenyn got from Geneva would be duplicated by Newark’s next opponent, Honeoye Falls-Lima. That game was played Wednesday, March 4 at Gates-Chili. What killed the Panthers wasn’t Fenyn, however, it was the speed of the Lady Reds, who improved to 20-2 with the win.

"We ran well tonight," Kirnie said. "We were really unselfish with the ball. It was pretty impressive. I’m really pleased with the overall performance of the whole team. Everybody did a good job." The win was Kirnie’s 329th, and she is tied for the most career victories in Section 5 by a female coach.

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