Sentinel photo by MIKE GOSS
East Juniata’s Cypress Feltman drives to the basket against Newport’s Bailey Kuhn in a Tri-Valley League girls basketball game on Monday night at East Juniata High School.
COCOLAMUS — East Juniata wasted no time asserting its dominance in the opening quarter and the Tigers rode a relentless defensive effort and a strong shooting night by Cypress Feltman to a 47-7 shellacking of visiting Newport in a Tri-Valley League girls basketball contest on Monday night.
The Tigers (2-4, 1-4 Tri-Valley League) had seven steals in the opening quarter and their defensive pressure continued throughout the evening as East Juniata recorded 18 steals and forced 23 Newport turnovers in the victory.
East Juniata was able to celebrate its senior night in style, as Feltman scored a team-high 22 points, while grabbing five rebounds, to go along with four assists and four steals. East Juniata’s other seniors, Marissa Coudriet and Lexie Stuck were also big contributors, as Coudriet had 11 rebounds, seven points, six steals and two assists. Stuck had five points and a steal and played great on the defensive end as well.
Sara Brackbill led the Tigers with 14 rebounds, scored five points and added an assist and a steal to lead the Tigers’ major contributors on the evening.
“Newport is a scrappy basketball team and I think if they had hit a couple of their shots early that it may have changed some of the momentum, but I think that we really got them out of that rhythm they were trying to establish,” East Juniata coach Travis Quici said. “I thought our press was good for something that we have been working on. We still have a couple of things in our back packet that we haven’t shown yet.
“I’m happy with the way that we played, and we got a lot of girls in the game tonight,” Quici added.
East Juniata ran out to a 10-3 lead through the first six minutes of play before the wheels fell off completely for the Buffaloes.
Newport (0-9, 0-5 Tri-Valley League) scored five of its seven points in the first quarter and trailed 28-7 at the half. The Buffaloes did not score in the second half as the Tigers closed the game on a 26-0 run. The Tigers allowed Newport to hit just three shots from the field and the Buffaloes added one free throw.
Feltman helped the Tigers get out to a big lead in the second quarter behind three 3-pointers. Feltman hit four threes on the night and scored 12 of her 22 points in the second frame. Her first three of the quarter gave East Juniata a 17-5 edge before her final three of the half put the Tigers up, 24-7.
She hit another three early in the third quarter as the rout was on with the Tigers up by 25.
“Cypress Feltman played phenomenal tonight,” Quici said. “I know that Marissa Coudriet didn’t do a lot on offense tonight but defensively, she was a stopper. She just seemed like she was always in the right position and made some big plays when we needed them and got some big rebounds. Hats off to the girls, I challenged them, and they stepped up.”
Despite a 1-4 start, Quici isn’t too concerned with how his team navigated a tough portion of the schedule in the opening weeks, stressing to his team that all its goals are still in front of them.
“We’ve played pretty good basketball all year and we looked at our record at 1-4 coming in. I sat down with the seniors today and I really challenged all of them,” Quici said. “We have to get better every day. It’s a new year and we know what our goals are. We know what we want, and we need to do things differently to get there.
“We knew it was heavy at the top and hopefully that stretch has made us a better basketball team,” Quici added. “We learned how to lose close games, and hopefully we can learn how to win close games. I’m pleased with tonight’s result, but that’s where we are at.”
The Tigers return to action on Thursday when they travel to Greenwood for a Tri-Valley League contest.
East Juniata 47, Newport 7
EAST JUNIATA
Cypress Feltman 8 2-4 22, Marissa Coudriet 2 3-6 7, Lexie Stuck 2 0-0 5, Sara Brackbill 2 1-2 5, Grace Hibbs 2 0-0 4, Macy Buskey 1 0-0 2, Cadee Becker 1 0-1 2, Emily Kerstetter 0 0-0 0, Mar Audreu Bernat 0 0-0 0. Totals: 18 6-13 –47.
3-point goals: Feltman 4, Stuck.
NEWPORT
Emily Mayersky 1 0-0 2, Lillian Plank 1 0-0 2, Naia Caudle 1 0-2 2, Sidney Daniels 0 1-3 1, Ella Weidenhammer 0 0-1 0, Bailey Kuhn 0 0-0 0, Paige Goerman 0 0-0 0, Lillian Otstott 0 0-0 0, Jessica Fletcher 0 0-0 0, Maggie Peterson 0 0-0 0, Alexis Otstott 0 0-0 0. Totals: 3 1-6 –7.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
EJ 10-18-7-12 — 47
NEW 5-2-0-0 — 7