Game Recap: West Shamokin 65, Saltsburg 30

West Shamokin's Lily Jordan (above) skys for a rebound and put-back during the Wolves' 65-30 victory over the Saltsburg Trojans at home on Thursday.

By Joe Rhoades

Lily Jordan and the West Shamokin defense gave Saltsburg little chance of offensive success during the first quarter of Thursday’s Heritage Conference matchup.

The Wolves snagged 14 rebounds during the first eight minutes, seven coming from Jordan, as West Shamokin built a 19-9 lead that resulted in a 65-30 victory.

“I tell the girls all the time that any time you can get a conference win — It’s big. You’re jockeying to get to the semifinals of the Heritage, you want to be in the top four, and we’re jockeying for playoff position.” West Shamokin head coach Frank Nagy said following his team’s victory. “I felt that this game was our best all-around game of the season so far — even though we’ve only played three games — I thought we played well.”

The Wolves’ path to success started and ended with their performance on the glass. Jordan paced West Shamokin with 14 boards to go along with her 16 points. Abby Oesterling also chipped in a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds, to go along with her eight assists and six steals.

“That was our No. 1 key of the game and it’s still in there on the whiteboard — win the battle on the boards. We felt like we could, especially with their best big out. We felt like that was a big advantage coming in,” Nagy said of his team using rebounds to create offense. “I wasn’t thrilled in the first half with how we were finishing. I thought we were padding our rebounding stats because we were missing some shots. But I love the resiliency of this team.”