Huron pulls away late to edge St. Paul, 41-34

HURON — Huron struggled to makes shots on the opening night of the girls basketball season, but the Tigers finished with a lot more attempts. That proved to be the difference in a 41-34 win over St. Paul on Friday. Huron put up 20 more shots than the Flyers in the decisive second half, which offset a rough shooting night. Tigers coach Matt Smith got a victory in his first game in charge of the program. "It feels awesome; so proud of the girls," Smith said. "Great team win. I thought we fought hard and played together and had a lot of different girls in the game. They all did what they had to do to get a win. Happy with our effort." The Tigers dominated the boards in the second half, led by Reece Hotz (12 in the game) and Mya Smith (10). "We challenged them at halftime to do that and they stepped up," coach Smith said. "That makes a huge difference. We did a great job on the boards and played unselfish and made the extra pass." St. Paul led 20-19 at halftime on back-to-back 3-pointers by freshmen Raeleigh Friend and Deanna Vazquez, who led the Flyers with nine points. "I loved our effort, I loved our energy," St. Paul coach Steve Frazee said. "We got running-clocked by Huron last year. I thought we were really competitive tonight. We gotta fix the small things and we can't turn the ball over." Turnovers hurt the Flyers. They gave it up 36 times, including 12 in the fourth quarter. That helped Huron get a few easy baskets and finish with 16 more free throw attempts than St. Paul. "Turnovers really killed us, in the second half especially," Frazee said. "I thought we handled their press well in the first half. They got out of it because we were handling it well. I told the girls I don't know why we panicked all of the sudden." St. Paul played tough defense and took a 26-25 lead on a bucket by Annie Friend with 2:50 to play in the third quarter before Huron found another gear. Alayna Sullivan hit a 3-pointer off a turnover to give Huron a 28-26 advantage late in the third quarter. It was the Tigers' only made 3 in the game. Hotz scored off an offensive rebound to give Huron a 30-26 lead. After a steal and layup by Vazquez, Mya Smith made a steal and bucket with 10 seconds left in the quarter to put the Tigers ahead 32-28. Addie LaCivita drove to her left to score with 4:45 left in the game and give Huron a 34-28 lead. Two LaCivita free throws stretched the advantage to 37-30 with 3:08 to play. Mya Smith's follow gave Huron a commanding 39-32 lead with 2:16 to play. St. Paul's Ella Kalizewski scored all six of the Flyers' points in the fourth quarter. Morgan Endsley added eight points for St. Paul, which hosts St. Mary Central Catholic (1-0) on Tuesday. Freshman Laura LaCivita led Huron with nine points. Hotz added eight points and Jenna Cox, Addie LaCivita and Mya Smith each had six. Huron travels to Firelands Conference favorite New London on Saturday as the Tigers try to settle into the winter sports season. "We have a lot of girls who haven't touched the ball," coach Smith said. "We have a lot of fall sport athletes. We got girls who played varsity soccer, varsity football, varsity volleyball, cross country, we've got some cheerleaders. It'll take some time to get our shots to fall." ST. PAUL (0-1) Morgan Endsley 3 2-4 8, Peyton Barman 0 0-0 0, Annie Friend 1 4-4 6, Aubrie Bogard 0 0-0 0, Ella Kalizewski 3 0-0 6, Raeleigh Friend 1 0-0 3, Deanna Vazquez 4 0-0 9, Jenny Schwan 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 12 8-10 34HURON (1-0) Adelyn Van Sickle 0 2-2 2, Jenna Cox 2 2-5 6, Addie LaCivita 2 2-5 6, Mya Smith 3 0-0 6, Reece Hotz 2 4-6 8, Alayna Sullivan 1 1-2 4, Lauren LaCivita 3 3-6 9. TOTALS 13 14-26 41 St. Paul 10 10 8 6 — 34Huron 13 6 13 9 — 41 Three-point goals: St. Paul 2 (R. Friend, Vazquez); Huron 1 (Sullivan)