Gowanda Small Town Times

The second Gowanda sports week of 2023 got started on a winning note. The Gowanda Varsity girls basketball team and both the boys and girls bowling teams came away with wins on Monday, January 9.

The girls basketball team was at home hosting Cassadaga Valley. The game started out tight through a score of 6-6. A 3-point basket sparked Cassadaga Valley to move into an 11-6 lead. Gao;Wisa:S Stevens then scored for Gowanda to bring the score to 8-11 at the end of the period.

In the beginning of the 2nd quarter, Gowanda scored quickly taking back the lead 12-11. Cassadaga answered with a 3-pointer starting another 5-point run to go ahead 16-12. As the half was nearing the end, Lily Scanlan landed a 3-point shot to bring the score to 15-16 at the intermission.

The 3rd quarter started out with Gowanda in complete control. a 10-0 surge put them out in front at 25-16. Cassadaga Valley finally scored midway through the period. A series of turnovers in the last minute of the quarter allowed Cassadaga Valley to tie things up at 25. That included a 3-pointer with 4 seconds showing on the clock.

Things got very tight in the final quarter, but Gowanda managed to grab a hold a small lead. With 55 seconds left in the game, Cece Rivera scored to move Gowanda’s lead to 36-30. With time running out, Cassadaga Valley was forced to make intentional fouls to save time. Gowanda rose to the occasion making four of four foul shots in the closing seconds giving them a 40-32 win. That put their league record at 1-1 (5-5 overall).

Top scorer for Gowanda was Crissa Scanlan with 14 points. Cece Rivera and Chloe Luther had 8 and 7 points, respectively. Also scoring for Gowanda were Gao:Wisa:S “Wassy” Stevens (4 points), Aurora Stevens (4 points) and Lily Scanlan (3 points).

It was also a good day for Gowanda bowling team with both the boys and girls getting wins at Cattaraugus-Little Valley. On the boys side, C-LV only had three bowlers participating which allowed Gowanda to grab an easy 4-0 win. Three Gowanda boys rolled series of 400 or better including Gavin Whitcher (144-190-125/459), Nicholas Smuda (125-150-134/409) and Drew Shull (113-108-179/400). Closely grouped in the 340s were Zachary Hojnacki (130-126-92/348), Kory Degenfelder (128-113-102/343) and Drezden Spire (126-117-98/341). This brought the boys season record to 7-2.

The Gowanda girls came close to a 4-0 score, but lost Game 2 by just 10 pins (598-608). Aubrey Smuda (126-120-129/375) was top bowler for the Gowanda girls with Sierra Twoguns (133-104-122/359) and Demetra Spire (109-116-118/343) close behind. Smuda’s three games were all above her average. Strong efforts were also put in by Cameron Clark (92-103-117/312) and Natalia Elliott (93-90-104/287) rolling her season high series. Two other Gowanda girls had only partial series. Makayla Kuras had 174 total pins in Games 1 and 3. Emma Golden bowled in Game 2. The win brought the girls’ record to 5-3.