By Keith Harrington
It was Cailin Severance, but you could have sworn it was Caitlin Clark. The Hartford junior certainly resembled the star Iowa Hawkeyes guard Friday night. If you looked up the definition of “on fire” in the dictionary of basketball Severance’s picture would probably be there.
Severance knocked down seven 3-pointers and scored a career-high 25 points as the Tanagers outscored Granville 80-61 in an Adirondack League high-scoring shootout Friday night.
It was Senior Night for Granville as Lauren Bascom, Melissa Beaver, Megan Decker, Megan Hover, Courtney Ennis, and Hailey Lacoste. All six of them were introduced as starters, and the way Hartford shot it seemed as if the Golden Horde could have used an extra defender on the floor.
Hartford used an incredible shooting display to fashion a 19-12 first-quarter lead. Severance nailed a pair of treys and Johnson another for the Tanagers. Lauren Bascom hit a 3-pointer for Granville and Paige Taylor scored eight points in the stanza to keep the Golden Horde close.
“We came out well. It was nice to see us come out tonight ready to shoot and ready to score,” Hartford coach Jason Johnson said. “The night we played them before we had a bad week. It was vacation and we shot 18 or 19 percent. I want to see our numbers from tonight. I have a feeling it’s in the forties if not fifties.”
Hartford pulled away in the second. The Tanagers opened the frame with a 16-4 run to extend their lead to 35-15 and were in control from there. Hartford led 38-18 at the break.
Granville refused to go away, but every time they looked like they could whittle the deficit down, Hartford had an answer. A bucket by Kylee Campbell sliced the lead to 15 in the third, and a Bascom hoop and free throw made it 74-59 in the fourth. Both times the Golden Horde responded with a run of their own.
“I’m proud of my girls. We could have folded the tent up. I’ve got to figure things out defensively. We can’t let a team score 80 points,” Granville coach Dan Brown said. We scored 61 points, I’ll take that all night.”
When the Tanagers cooled off a bit from the perimeter, Alawnah Dunda took over in the paint, scoring 11 points in the second half.
After Severance, Mckenzie Johnson poured in 18 points and connected on five 3-pointers. Dunda finished with a double-double of 17 points and 15 rebounds. Raeghan Liebig and Jadyn Fish also hit shots from behind the arc.
Paige Taylor paced the Golden Horde with 13 points. Melissa Beaver added 12 points and Kylie Campbell had 10.
The argument could be made the Granville played even better than they did when they defeated the Tanagers by 16 in Hartford last month. However, the Tanagers were just in another gear on this night.
“We got down in the first half. We outscored them in the second half. People don’t realize that.,” Brown explained. They’ve got two girls that can absolutely light the nets up.”
Hartford now looks forward to the Adirondack League Tournament and sectional play. The Tanagers have a rematch with Warrensburg in the league semifinals.
“It’s going to bring us a lot of momentum. That’s what we were looking for. I said to them in the locker room, last night’s loss (to Cambridge) is going to make us stronger and make us want it more. That should power us all the way through.”
Hartford ends the regular season 8-2, 11-5. Granville falls to 4-6, 7-9.
Photo Credit-Nate Woodruff
