Warriors over Fairfield Union
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VINCENT -- To say first-year head coach Brad Venham and his Warren Warriors girls basketball team have come out of the gate strong would be a major understatement.
Tuesday evening the Warriors faced their toughest test of the season as they hosted Fairfield Union and the Warren girls passed with flying colors as they downed the Falcons 55-42 to improve to 4-0 on the season.
Warren seniors Alex Frazee and Sophie Cochran combined for 31 points as the Warriors used an excellent second half performance to pull away from the Falcons.
"Any time you get the chance to face a team that will test you early in the season is good," said Venham. "We go into the half down one and we came out the second half and wanted to play our style and our game and we were able to open it up and get out and run a little bit."
Both teams came out of the chute firing as the Warriors jumped out to a 19-16 lead at the end of the first period with the final two buckets of the period coming from freshman Hayleigh Chidester.
The Warriors quickly added to their lead in the second period on a free throw by Chidester and field goals by Cochran and Raylen Shotwell to open up a 24-16 lead.
The Falcons beat the Warriors early on last year but were eliminated by them in the postseason despite putting together a 22-3 record and they may have had a bit of revenge in mind late in the second quarter as they strung together nine straight points to close out the half and turn the eight-point deficit into a one-point lead.
Venham and the Warriors knew it was going to be crucial to regain the momentum they lost in the final minutes of the first half and they managed to do just that thanks to a 6-0 run to begin the third quarter.
Frazee got things going with a jumper and Cochran followed with back-to-back field goals to give the home team a 30-25 advantage.
An inside score by Nicole Terry halted the Warrior run but Cochran answered once again with her second triple of the game.
Christian Thompson pulled the Falcons back to within four but a step-back jumper by Frazee and a triple from junior Raylen Shotwell gave the Warriors a nine-point lead with less than two minutes to play in the third.
The Falcons cut the lead to eight before the end of the third but Warren scored the first seven points of the final quarter to take their biggest lead of the game at 46-31.
Frazee canned her third 3-pointer of the game and then made an outstanding pass under the basket to senior Tessa Haffner, who laid it in to give the Warriors the 15-point lead.
The Falcons managed to get it back down to 10 at one point in the final two minutes but Warren erupted for an 8-0 run on baskets by Chidester, Haffner, Shotwell and Frazee to put things away for good.
Frazee led all scorers with 17 points while also dishing out five assists and coming up with four steals.
"She (Frazee) is just a special player and demands attention from the other team and that opens up scoring opportunities for everyone else," said Venham of Frazee. "She get's frustrated at herself sometimes when she doesn't shoot 100 percent from the field but she has to realize just her presence on the floor helps us be better."
Cochran added 14 points while Chidester provided production off the Warren bench by scoring nine points and yanking down five boards.
Venham had high praise for the job Haffner did on the defensive end as she grabbed a game-high nine rebounds while also registering three steals.
"What a phenomenal job Tessa Haffner did inside tonight," said Venham of his senior who grabbed three consecutive offensive rebounds at one point late in the first half. "I thought her play inside really kept us in the game in the first half."
Fairfield Union, which slipped to 1-2 with the loss, was led in scoring by Terry with 14 while Thompson finished with 11 points and six rebounds.
The Warriors will look for victory No. 5 on Monday night when they travel to Logan.