Gowanda Small Town Times

The Gowanda Varsity girls basketball team hosted Salamanca on February 7. The event also served as the Senior Night celebration for the team. Prior to the game time was taken to recognize the Senior members of both team. First, Salamanca Seniors, Mariah Downey, Aubrey Hogan and Makenzie Oates, were announced and given small gift baskets. All in attendance then gave them a round of applause. Then it was time to introduce the Gowanda Seniors and their families. They were also given commemorative gifts while their accomplishments were recounted. Those Seniors were Cece Rivera, Crissa Scanlan, Aurora Stevens and Gao:Wisa:S “Wassy” Stevens.

This was a very important game for the teams. Both Gowanda and Salamanca had just one league victory coming into the game. Salamanca’s win was over Gowanda in their previous meeting by score of 42-49.

Things started out slow. The scoring was close until a Salamanca 3-pointer put them up 7-3. They increased that to 11-5 before Gowanda got their game in gear. An 8-4 Gowanda surge to close out the 1st period reduced the gap to 15-13. The 2nd quarter was sluggish for both teams, but Gowanda was still able to score eight points. At the same time, they held Salamanca to just four points allowing Gowanda to take a 21-19 halftime lead.

In the 3rd quarter Salamanca took a 1-point, 25-24 lead before Gowanda fired back. Gowanda took the last six points of the period to pull back in front 31-25. Salamanca was held to five points in the final quarter, the last two of those coming with 3 seconds left in the game. Gowanda added 12 points in that period to lock down a 43-30 win.

Crissa Scanlan led Gowanda with 18 points. Behind her were Chloe Luther (9 points. including Gowanda’s only 3-pointer) and Gao:Wisa:S “Wassy” Stevens (8 points). Also contributing to the Gowanda point total were Cece Rivera (4 points), Layla Gamble (2 points) and Aurora Stevens (2 points).

The Gowanda boys bowling team was at Lucky Lanes in Fredonia for a rolloff on the 7th. Forestville came in 1st Place with games of 1,230, 1,106 and 1,165 for a 3,501 series. Gowanda (986-1,065-1,098/3,149) was 12th in a field of 22 schools. At the back of the pack was Franklinville (727-769-804/2,300).