Sussex Academy girls’ basketball wins season opener 27-18
Sussex Academy had a successful takeoff to its girls’ hoops season Dec. 5, beating First State Military Academy 27-18 on the strength of a 16-point second quarter.
“It was a good game. It was a good way for us to try everything,” said coach Rayona Benson.
After scoring the first points of the contest, the Seahawks trailed 3-2 at the start of the second quarter.
Captain Emiley Bisaha, who registered the first two points, made her presence known during the second frame. The junior was all over the court collecting rebounds and steals as she scored all of her game-high 10 points before the half. Senior Rachel Carey, a fellow captain, and freshman Grayce Glover each pitched in four points to round out the second-quarter scoring.
Benson called for a trap in the second quarter, and the girls executed it with enthusiasm. Junior Falisha Amisial, a captain, was joined by sophomores Debora Williams (three steals) and Lily Zorn (one steal) in forcing the Bulldogs to commit costly turnovers. Benson said that’s one of their bread-and-butter defensive plays and something they work on all the time. The home team led 18-5 at the end of two.
Glover replicated Bisaha’s formula for success to begin the second half by being aggressive on defense and in the paint. The freshman scored six points down low in the third to tie Bisaha’s game-high 10 points.
“It's fun playing with people that are way better than you because you can learn a lot from them and they push you to work harder for a spot,” Glover said.
Glover led the team with six offensive boards and eight rebounds total. Bishaha grabbed seven boards, Carey had six and senior Samira Zahraoui collected four rebounds.
“We wanted to see everybody do everything; we wanted to test out different lineups,” Benson said. “Everybody did a really good job and did exactly what I asked. Every time I made an adjustment, they were fine with it and went with it.”
A late push whittled the 18-point lead down to single digits, but the Seahawks flew off with a 27-18 victory to start the year 1-0.
