ALBANY - Juda junior point guard Alexis Goecks scored a game-high 24 points, and the Panthers girls basketball team withstood a second-half rally by Albany to clip the Comets 49-43 Thursday night.
"With their (Albany's) pressure, she (Goecks) was able to take advantage of that on drives to the basket," Juda coach Curt Brown said. "She was able to get to the rim. She works really hard and always stays after practice. To have another scorer step up and take some of the pressure off Chelsea Burkhalter is big."
Juda (4-1, 1-0 Six Rivers East) led 41-21 late in the second half. The Comets (0-6, 0-2) closed the game on a 22-8 run.
"What we were failing to do early on was getting the ball inside," Albany coach Adam Wamsley said. "Once we started getting the ball inside, we started hitting some outside shots, and we fought back in the game. Obviously, we can hang our hat on never giving up. The hard lesson we learned is we can't get down by 20 points on our home court and have the turnovers. It's hard to walk into the locker room 0-6. Those are the lessons we are learning. We have to take it game by game."
Albany freshman Libby Beck scored a team-high 11 points. Albany freshman Payton Zurfluh chipped in six points, knocking down one 3-pointer. Albany senior Sydnee Woyak hit two 3-pointers and also scored six points. Woyak was playing just her second game since returning from a stress fracture in a foot that wiped out her cross country season.
"It's nice to have her healthy," Wamsley said. "She sparked the comeback."
The Comets shot 80 percent from the free-throw line (16 of 20) compared to 43.2 percent for the Panthers (16 of 37).
"To have a game like that shows improvement," Wamsley said of the Comets shooting 80 percent from the free-throw line. "We let them shoot 37 free throws. That is too many. If we can close the gap with our turnovers and stop fouling on defense, we are close. The young growing pains have to happen before we take the next step forward."
Burkhalter scored seven points for Juda.
Brown wants to see the Panthers get better at closing games from the free-throw line.
"Whether it was tired legs, pressure or whatever the case was, they just didn't go down," Brown said. "If we could have hit some free throws it would have taken some of the pressure off. Every time we play Albany, it's close. We were lucky to make some baskets early so we had a little bit of a cushion."
"With their (Albany's) pressure, she (Goecks) was able to take advantage of that on drives to the basket," Juda coach Curt Brown said. "She was able to get to the rim. She works really hard and always stays after practice. To have another scorer step up and take some of the pressure off Chelsea Burkhalter is big."
Juda (4-1, 1-0 Six Rivers East) led 41-21 late in the second half. The Comets (0-6, 0-2) closed the game on a 22-8 run.
"What we were failing to do early on was getting the ball inside," Albany coach Adam Wamsley said. "Once we started getting the ball inside, we started hitting some outside shots, and we fought back in the game. Obviously, we can hang our hat on never giving up. The hard lesson we learned is we can't get down by 20 points on our home court and have the turnovers. It's hard to walk into the locker room 0-6. Those are the lessons we are learning. We have to take it game by game."
Albany freshman Libby Beck scored a team-high 11 points. Albany freshman Payton Zurfluh chipped in six points, knocking down one 3-pointer. Albany senior Sydnee Woyak hit two 3-pointers and also scored six points. Woyak was playing just her second game since returning from a stress fracture in a foot that wiped out her cross country season.
"It's nice to have her healthy," Wamsley said. "She sparked the comeback."
The Comets shot 80 percent from the free-throw line (16 of 20) compared to 43.2 percent for the Panthers (16 of 37).
"To have a game like that shows improvement," Wamsley said of the Comets shooting 80 percent from the free-throw line. "We let them shoot 37 free throws. That is too many. If we can close the gap with our turnovers and stop fouling on defense, we are close. The young growing pains have to happen before we take the next step forward."
Burkhalter scored seven points for Juda.
Brown wants to see the Panthers get better at closing games from the free-throw line.
"Whether it was tired legs, pressure or whatever the case was, they just didn't go down," Brown said. "If we could have hit some free throws it would have taken some of the pressure off. Every time we play Albany, it's close. We were lucky to make some baskets early so we had a little bit of a cushion."
