Lady Sabers repeat at Reddon-Hoffman tourney

The Susquehanna Lady Sabers entered the Denise Reddon/Jill Hoffman Memorial Holiday Basketball tournament as defending champions. The team left the two-day event with another trophy and a message to their league opponents.

Susquehanna jumped out early on Montrose running out to a 16-7 first quarter lead. Mackenzie Steele established herself in the lane on both ends of the floor and Taylor Huyck disrupted things on the perimeter.

Montrose fought back in the second quarter holding Susquehanna to 5 points while scoring 7 of their own.

Susquehanna turned up the pressure after the half and outscored Montrose 16-4. Mackenzie Heath knocked down two threes and the Lady Sabers seized control of the game on their way to the 43-26 victory.

Huyck, Steele, and Heath each scored 12 points in a balanced Lady Sabers attack.

Harper Andre and Brianna Spence each scored 7 to lead the Lady Meteors.

Aside from the championship trophy Susquehanna Coach Kirk Fallon was proud of his team’s resiliency.

“We were coming off two losses before the tournament, so I was interested to see how we would respond,” said Fallon. “Montrose did a nice job defensively, they turned us over several times. “

Earlier that afternoon Elk Lake used a big second quarter to defeat Blue Ridge 54-38 to win the consolation game.

Trailing 11-10 after one stanza, Elk Lake outscored Blue Ridge 18-4 to take 28-15 lead into halftime.

The Lady Raiders battled back after halftime outscoring the Lady Warriors 12-7 and cut the lead to 35-27, but would not get any closer.

Mercedes Zajaczkowski led Elk Lake with 15 points and Tamara Voda added 11. Madison Tewksbury chipped in with 13 rebounds.

Danielle Goff led Blue Ridge with 12 points and Ashley Torres added 10.

Susquehanna’s Huyck was named MVP of the tournament. She was joined on the all-tourney team by teammate Steele, and Andre along with Montrose’s Andre, Elk Lake’s Krista Jones, and  Blue Ridge’s Danielle Goff

Susquehanna earned its way to the championship by dismantling Blue Ridge in the opening game of the tournament 64-18.

Steele led the way with 18 points. Huyck and Bethany Maby both chipped in with 12.

Montrose reached the title game with a 36-21 win over Elk Lake. Andre led the way with 11 points.

The Lady Meteors outscored the Lady Warriors 16-7 over the middle two quarters to take over the game. Tangi Smith added 7 points for the winners, while Krista Jones scored 9 for Elk Lake.

In other tournament action Mountain View fell to Nanticoke 58-16 in the consolation game of the Taylor Lions Holiday tournament. Sydney Newhart topped the points for the Lady Eagles with 8.