Mount Vernon News

DANVILLE — The Danville High School girls basketball team hosted the Mount Vernon Academy Eagles for a varsity-only contest on Monday evening. From the opening tip it was evident that the Eagles were no match for the Blue Devils, who jumped out to a 45-0 lead before Mount Vernon Academy put a point on the scoreboard. The end result was a 69-8 Danville victory.

“We had three or four freshmen out there tonight and they got a lot of playing time,” said Danville coach Jack O’Rourke. “We were hoping that they would get a little varsity experience and this game helped us in that aspect. They got to be out in front of the crowd so it was positive for them.

“I don’t know how much progress we made other than we got some good practice in. Their girls tried hard, but it is really hard to judge what I saw tonight.”

Danville’s defensive pressure keyed the first half of play. Mount Vernon Academy (0-2) was 0-17 in the first half and had 19 turnovers, including eight steals by the Blue Devils (4-1). A full-court press was effective in Danville building an 18-0 lead in the first four minutes of play. The Blue Devils added another two buckets in the final minute of the first quarter and led 22-0 after one.

“That’s what we feel like we have to do with,” said O’Rourke of the team’s press. “As we get into conference play, everybody is going to have girls 5-foot-10 and 6-foot, and we don’t have anybody like that. We are going to have to rely on our speed and quickness and a number of girls are going to see the floor for us.”

Things didn’t get much better for the Eagles in the second quarter, though their defense improved and slowed the Blue Devils. Danville, playing different combinations of 14 players all throughout the game, managed only 12 points in the second eight minutes of play and led 34-0 at halftime.

The Eagles were late coming out of the locker room to begin the third quarter and it showed in their play. Danville’s Tracy Payne stole the ball and scored a layup at the other end to get the second half going. Payne was fouled on the play and hit the free throw, making it a three-point play. A pair of baskets by Kristi Byers added to the score and Payne added another bucket to make it 43-0 less than three minutes into the quarter. Erica Boeshart scored off a putback to open up the 45-0 lead with 3:33 left.

Mount Vernon Academy then managed what looked to be unthinkable — it put together a 5-2 run. A free throw by Amanda Talton and a pair of baskets by Liz Erskine got the Eagles on the scoreboard, but the Blue Devils didn’t stop. Boeshart hit a jumper to close the quarter and put her team up 49-5 after three.

Another Blue Devil lineup greeted the Eagles to begin the final quarter, but the end results was the same. Danville scored eight points over the first four minutes and continued to pull away. A series of free throws by Danville pushed the lead to 62-5 with 1:54 to play. Erskine was fouled on Mount Vernon Academy’s next possession and hit 1-of-2 free throws. The Eagles scored their last bucket with just under a minute left after Eleni DeCastro hit a jumper. Danville got its final two buckets from Hannah Matheny. Matheny picked off two Eagle passes and took them to the other end to cap the 69-8 win.

Payne led Danville with 13 points and four steals in limited action. Byers, Matheny and Boeshart contributed eight points apiece, and Boeshart added a team-high five rebounds. Twelve of the 14 Danville players put points on the scoreboard and the Blue Devils won every statistical category.

Erskine led Mount Vernon Academy with five points. Emily Buckner and Talton each had seven rebounds each and Chadean Clumis-Cormack had three steals.

One area of concern for O’Rourke, however, was the rebounding. His team outrebounded the Eagles by three, 38-35, but had a definite size advantage.

“It scares me from my standpoint because we have been weak in that area,” O’Rourke said. “We are going to spend some serious time in the next couple of days working on it because we are not rebounding very well; we’re not making good judgments of when the ball is coming off the rim. We have to work on it.”

The Blue Devils will try to add to their victory total later this week when they travel to Northridge on Thursday. Danville also hosts Utica on Saturday.