Easton Area High School has a tall and agile girls basketball team. It is also a well-balanced squad that plays a mean and active 2-3 zone defense and is very unselfish on offense. In other, words Easton has a lot going for itself this season.
And here’s the kicker. The Red Rovers have just one senior on their roster.
Anye’ Staton scored a game-high 15 points and Evalyse Cole had a great overall game with 10 points, nine rebounds and four assists as the undefeated Red Rovers clobbered Bethlehem Catholic 51-22 in an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference East Division game on Friday night at the Easton Middle School gymnasium.
“The sky’s the limit for us,” said Cole, who assisted one basket on the seat of her pants after picking up a loose ball near her own basket and feeding reserve Mallory Elias for an easy deuce.
“Anye’ and I have been playing together for the past three years and I feel our chemistry grows more and more. As captains we can help our team on the court and in the locker room.”
Bethlehem Catholic (3-2 overall, 1-1 division) is supposed to have one of the better teams in the EPC this season but Easton (5-0, 1-0) showed why it’s ranked as the top team in the area.
“We know we can get better,” Easton coach Dave Lutz said. “And we know we’re not that many points better than them. It was one of those days. We have to keep improving because we know teams like Beca and others teams will keep getting better. We can’t stay the same.”
The Red Rovers took control early when they jumped out to a 17-4 advantage 1:20 into the second quarter when 5-foot-5 junior Megan Ellis hit the first of her 3-pointers on as assist from Kourin Carew.
Carew helped Easton to a 20-7 edge on rebounding in the first half with five of her seven boards as the Red Rovers took a 25-12 lead into intermission. It’s 2-3 defense was smothering the Golden Hawks who shot 6-for-20 in the first half while Easton made 10 of its 19 field goal attempts.
“We have real athletic kids,” Lutz said. “And they are very unselfish. Sometimes they over pass but I’ll take that. If that’s a problem it’s better than the other way around.”
While Easton went 2-for-10 from 3-point range in the first 16 minutes it made up for it by making seven of its eight two-point attempts. Staton, who uses her strength to her advantage, is lethal when she stations herself on the right block.
Easton’s starting lineup goes 6-1, 6-1, 6-foot and 5-10 along with Megan Elias.
“We’re really lengthy so we get a lot of deflections and steals on defense,” said Staton, who is the only senior on the team. “We have to stay confident because, obviously, everybody wants to beat us. I guess we’re the team to beat but we have to keep our poise and keep on winning.”
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Staton and Elias each had six first half points, Cole had five and Carew contributed four as Easton showed off its offensive balance. Eight of its 10 baskets had an assist attached to it in the opening half.
“After these first six games our chemistry is starting to click and we’re moving the ball on offense and communication more on defense.” Cole said. “The more we play with each other the better we get as a team. There’s always room for improvement.”
Bethlehem Catholic changed up from man-to-man defense to a 2-3 zone to start the second quarter. But nothing the Golden Hawks had in their defensive bag of tricks could stop the Red Rovers avalanche of talent.
“It was one of those nights,” Hawks coach Jose Medina said. “They just did a great job of executing their offense. They were talented last year so we just found out we have a lot of work to do. That’s the beauty of this game. You look at things and you get better as the season goes on. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves because we have to play a good team Saturday in New Jersey. It was their night tonight but we’ll bounce back and be ready for our next game.”
Cici Hernandez and Kendra Rigo led Bethlehem Catholic with six points each.
“Their length did a great job tonight,” Medina said of his team’s offensive woes. “We got some looks but we couldn’t knock them down. Give them credit.”
Tom Mugavero is a freelance writer.
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