Gowanda Small Town Times

[photo] Gowanda’s Karice John (#14) races down court with the ball during a January 12 home game against Falconer. Also seen is Alhanna Gabel (#3).

On Thursday, January 11, the Gowanda Varsity bowling teams traveled to Allegany-Limestone. It was one of their few away matches this season. The Gowanda boys team upped their record to 8-0 on the season while the girls slipped to 5-3 with a loss.

The Gowanda boys got off to a slow start with an 800-873 loss in Game 1. It was their lowest total of the night. The boys went on to take the next two games by scores of 883-872 and 874-780 to also win on total pins 2557-2525. The 3-1 win moved their record to 8-0. Top 5 bowlers for the Gowanda boys were Kory Degenfelder (188-150-161/499), Nicholas Smuda (126-181-177/484), Gavin Whitcher (102-158-189/449), Drezden Spire (142-144-136/422) and Morgan Ruff (121-151-133/405). Aiden Gray bowled two games (121&99) during the match and Zachary Hojnacki bowled a single game of 78.

The Gowanda girls team was swept 0-4 with game scores of 660-746, 644-734 and 698-814 for a total pins score of 2002-2294. Bowling full sets for the Gowanda girls were Aubrey Smuda (124-130-172/426), Bailey Shields (127-166-131/424), Makayla Kuras (111-107-147/365) and Tayleigh Williams (120-98-92/310). Bowling two games each were Lila Offenbach (75 & 86), Natalia Elliott (103 & 56) and Emma Golden (87 & 70).

The next day, Friday, January 12, the focus was on the Gowanda girls basketball team hosting Falconer. It was another poor showing on offense. After losing two of their top players before the season started, they were also without one of their top scoring threats to this point, Corrina John, for this game.

It was a very strange showing from a Gowanda offense that has serious problems scoring from under the basket. Of their 24-point total in the game, 21 of those came on 3-point shots. It took Falconer almost half of the 1st Quarter to take a 4-0 lead in the game. A Lilly Scanlon 3-pointer for Gowanda narrowed that to 4-3. A Falconer 10-3 advantage was cut to 10-5 as Lauren Kelly scored at the buzzer to end the quarter. That would be Gowanda’s only 2-point basket of the game. Falconer was up 21-15 at halftime on the way to a 46-24 final win. In addition to Scanlan’s 1st Quarter score, she also had a 3-point buzzer beater as the 3rd Quarter ended. Also scoring a pair of 3-point baskets in the game were Karice John and Marissa Beaver. Layla Gamble had a single 3-pointer for Gowanda.