You know times are changing when a girls’ basketball game between Hornell and Dansville had more hype than the upcoming Buffalo Bills game tonight.
But the girls from both teams earned it.
Dansville came in ranked #1 in the state and Hornell, the defending Section V champions, came in ranked #4. Previews were posted, media coverage was intense, and so was the defense.
In the end, the Red Raiders of Hornell rode the wave of emotions from a great week of practice and never looked back, taking an early lead and winning at home, 75-51.
Payton Bentley and Jordyn Dyring each scored 22 points and each hit four three pointers in the win for Hornell (4-0).
“The girls had a great stretch of practices leading up to this game and it really paid off for us,” said Hornell coach Jim Dagon. “Lillian Hoyt showed great leadership in the days leading up to the game — they all worked hard, and deserve a lot of credit, but Lilly really took it upon herself to set the tone and led by example which was great to see. They committed to working hard defensively and they rebounded the ball as a team. They showed a lot of poise in a game that had a lot of hype surrounding it as well.”
Also for Hornell, Selena Maldonado scored 12 points, Lillian Hoyt had eight with two 3-pointers and Raegan Evingham scored eight.
While the stat sheet was stuffed for Hornell, Dagon said that did not matter to the Red Raiders.
“Offensively, they shared the ball extremely well; none of them care about the statistics, they just make selfless decisions to get the best shot possible,” Dagon said. “And the ones who don’t do the bulk of the scoring on certain nights commit to executing the details like defending and making hustle plays, and they don’t think twice about it.
“We’ve got the potential to have a different leading scorer each night which puts a lot of pressure on opposing defenses, and the girls do a fantastic job of playing team basketball,” Dagon continued “This was the first time this season that we put together 32 complete minutes of solid play, so as a coach I was very proud of that.”
For Dansville (7-1), Aynsley Belcher scored a game-high 29 points and ripped down 12 rebounds while
Kali Meyer had eight points, Megan Tyler scored five and Chelsie Tyler (six rebounds) had four points.
Dansville 12 10 15 14 — 51
Hornell 19 15 22 19 — 75
