WESTFIELD – The St. Mary’s and Westfield Voc-Tech high school girls’ basketball teams will meet in a neighborly tussle Tuesday night in the Lady Tigers’ home opener. But both teams first took care of business Thursday night, ensuring that one of the two local squads will – barring a tie – enjoy a winning streak.
Westfield Voc-Tech received 14 points from Brandi VanGelder to double up Smith Voke 38-16 in Northampton last night. Nadine Tran added nine points, Shannon Michael had six, Sally Davis, 5, and Amber Rode, 4.
Megan Shayne led Smith Voke with 10 points, but Voc-Tech (1-2) locked down the opposition, limiting the remaining players to just six between all of them.
“It was a much better game than we had so far this season,” Westfield Voc-Tech coach Matt Secklecki said. “We actually got off to a good start.”
Voc-Tech had three more points at the half than Smith Voke finished with for the entire game.
“Our defense held them below 20 points so that worked out well,” Secklecki said. “Hopefully that will get things rolling for us.”
At Westfield North Middle School, St. Mary’s enjoyed a big victory of sorts. The Saints got a huge effort from Monica Hannoush, who scored 14 points to lead her team to a 29-26 win over Pathfinder.
Hannoush was not alone.
Shayna Page delivered a monster effort in the low post, scoring six points, recording five blocks, and hauling in 10 rebounds. Jeannette Peretti had seven points, and Lindsay Hunter added 2.
“St. Mary’s as a team played very strong,” said Lady Saints head coach Dave Breglio. And they managed to hold off a late surge as well from the Pioneers.
Now, on Tuesday, St. Mary’s and Westfield Voc-Tech will collide. Tip-off is scheduled at Voke at 5:30 p.m.
NOTES: The Westfield and Gateway girls’ hoops teams were also in action Thursday night, as well as the Bombers’ hockey team. No results were reported from those games as of press time Friday.
