Newcomers break Crystal Blues

Valkyries have recorded their first win since joining the Albany Basketball Association’s women’s A-grade competition after a crushing second-half display.

The newcomers trailed Crystal Blues by a single point at half-time in their round-two clash on Tuesday night before 10 three-pointers from Valkyries blew the game open.

Crystal Blues led early in the first half, before Valkyries scored the next two buckets with Casey Griffiths hitting her second three-pointer in the opening seven minutes put her side up by two points.

Both sides traded buckets for the rest of the half, with Crystal Blues leading by four points with less than a minute to play before the break.

Alyssa Ward hit a three-pointer in the dying seconds to get her side back to within one point, with Crystal Blues leading 18-17.

The second half started with a three-point contest, with five of the first six goals being three pointers.

Valkyries had tied the game up with 20 minutes left on the clock after hitting three long bombs.

Isabella De Giambattista’s free throws gave Crystal Blues a two-point advantage before Griffiths’ third long-range effort of the game levelled things up again.

An Indi Weeden three-pointer, followed by long bombs from teammates Ward and Griffiths, stretched the margin out to nine points in a matter of minutes.

Indi Weeden added another two, followed by two field goals from Brodei Dixon. Another three from Weeden saw the margin balloon to 18 points.

Phoenix Woods hit a three for Valkyries to push the margin to 21 points with 3:30 left to play before Georgia Clark stopped the run of eight consecutive field goals for Valkyries to bring the margin back under 20. Five of the last six field goals were scored by Crystal Blues but a final Tay Weeden three — Valkyries 10th for the half — made them 53-35 winners.

Griffiths led all scorers on the court with 14 points for Valkyries while Indi Weeden and Dixon added 10 points each.

Corbett top scored for Crystal Blues with 10 while Shianne Arthur dropped two threes on her way to nine points. Panthers recorded their second win in a row to start the season, overcoming a game Raiders under-18s outfit.

Raiders were right in the contest at half-time, leading Panthers 15-11. Panthers scored five of the first six field goals of the second half to trail by one point. Six straight points to Panthers guard Kayla Thomas gave her side the lead, and when Nina Smith added a two-pointer, the margin was five points.

With 12 minutes to play, Raiders had tied the game up at 30-all but Panthers went on to score eight of the next nine buckets, recording a 45-32 win.

Thomas topped the scoresheet with 13 points for Panthers while Ella Scamozzi added 12.

Casey Griffiths backed up to play again and top scored for Raiders with 11 points as did Valerie Corbett with eight points.