Gowanda Small Town Times

The Gowanda Varsity girls basketball team hosted Portville on Thursday, January 19. As has happened several times in the past, Gowanda got off to a slow start and put themselves into a hole that was impossible to climb out of. It was worst 1st quarter of the season for Gowanda going scoreless until there were just eight seconds left in the period. At that point Crissa Scanlan hit the second of two free throws for Gowanda’s first point. Although neither team scored for the first minute and a half of the game, Portville was still able to pile up a 16-1 lead going into the 2nd quarter. In a very unproductive 2nd period, Portville extended their lead, but only outpaced Gowanda by an 8-4 margin.

Gowanda got on track in the 2nd half. It was hardest fought quarter of the game with Gowanda just barely falling short 13-15 as Portville scored in the closing seconds. Gowanda added another 12 points to their score in the final quarter while Portville played a lot of their bench and was held to five points. That left the final score 44-30. The Portville win moved their record to 9-1.

Chloe Luther topped the Gowanda scoring with 12 points. Second in scoring for Gowanda, with 9 points, was Crissa Scanlan. Gao:Wisa:s “Wassy” Stevens and Lily Scanlan each had a lone 3-point basket in the game. That made this another of a long string of games where Scanlan’s only points in a game were a single 3-pointer. Aurora Stevens also scored for Gowanda.

The Gowanda boys and girls bowling teams were at Salamanca on the 19th. The boys record slipped to 8-3 with a 0-4 loss (859-1224/898-1073/850-964). Drew Shull (232-239-199/670) led the effort for the Gowanda boys. For Shull this marked his all time high games and series. Bowling in the 400s for Gowanda were Drezden Spire (22-131-163/416) and Nicholas Smuda (42-145-123/410). Gavin Whitcher had games of 138, 132 and 120 for a 390 series. Three other Gowanda boys bowled in two of three games. Along with their 2-game totals, they were Zachary Hojnacki (252), Kory Degenfelder (240) and Aiden Gray (229).

The girls bowling team managed to win their last game 715-703 while losing the match 1-3. In games 1 and 2, they fell just short by scores of 732-753 and 691-707. Rolling into the 400s were Demitra Spire (124-172-167/463) and Aubrey Smuda 170-127-160/457. Also bowling for the Gowanda girls were Sierra Twoguns (131-108-109/348), Cameron Clark (124-98-107/329) and Natalia Elliott (90-93-79/262).

Finally, January 19 found the Gowanda wrestling team at Springville falling short 33-39. Three Gowanda wrestlers earned wins by pin in the meet. They were Jayden Fish (118) over Riley Hjemdahl-Monsen, Nathan Warrior (145) over Zach Hughes and Michael Horth (152) over Bailey Oatman. Greg Reid (126) won his match over Aiden Morris by a 6-1 decision. Two wrestlers were awarded wins for Gowanda by forfeit. They were Nakotah Jackson (102) and Brendin Diebel (110).