AMD cruises into final

AMD Industries’ first 12 points of the night were on threes, and that long distance shooting carried them throughout the night in a 75-49 victory over BeeGraphix in the semifinals of the Steel City Summer Girls Basketball League Playoffs Monday night at Marx’s Court Time Sports Center.

“We had a good shooting night,” AMD coach Bria Rathway said. “Recently, we have seen a lot of zone and our girls love that. We are quick with our passes and are always looking for the open shooter. We take a lot of threes, but the girls did not settle for contested threes. We ran our offense and made our shots.”

Altogether, the No. 2 seed AMD Industries (8-3) collected 14 treys in the postseason triumph and had four players in double- figures. Giuliana Giannikas poured in 16 points, while Riley McCabe had 13 of her 15 points in the first half.

Aubrey Graney grabbed a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds, while Mikayla Canty rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10.

“These girls care about winning,” Rathway said. “They have picked up their play recently and we are playing unselfish basketball. They don’t care about how many points they score. They just want to win games. I love that attitude and they are a really fun team to coach.”

BeeGraphix (5-6) only had six players on the night, and fatigue played a huge factor for them in the second half. Emma Larkin led all scorers with 25 points, while Skylar Still compiled 11 and Raya Johnson scored eight.

“It’s tough to win games in this league with only six players,” BeeGraphix coach Larry Cash said. “Especially against a good team like AMD. They have a lot of solid players over there that can put the ball in the hoop consistently. We did not have our legs in that second half, but our girls never quit. I love their hustle and they got nothing to be ashamed of about their effort.”

Controlling Larkin was key for AMD all night on the defensive end.

“She is a great scorer and she has had a strong season for them this summer,” Rathway said. “We had to control her and not let her take over the game. We communicated well and played great help defense on her. We had to make her feel uncomfortable and get the ball out of her hands.”

AMD will look to continue their championship pedigree Wednesday when they play against No. 4 Trailside, who upended top seed Marie Slagus Howard Hanna Simon in the final at 7 p.m.

In the teams’ only meeting against each other this season, AMD defeated Trailside, 70-51, July 23. The other meeting was a forfeit victory for Trailside on June 26.

“You have to play hard and match the game’s intensity on Wednesday,” Rathway said. “You can’t let your nerves get to you or be timid at either end of the floor. We have built a winning culture this season and it has been successful. We have to play our style of basketball.”

After Johnson banked a 3-pointer for BeeGraphix to begin the contest, AMD rallied with a 13-4 spurt that included three treys by McCabe. Larkin got the momentum back for her team with a long three, but AMD countered with a 15-6 run that increased its advantage to 28-13.

BeeGraphix garnered eight of the final 12 points of the first half, but AMD went into intermission with a 32-21 lead.

“We made a good run at the end of the first half,” Cash said. “We got some stops and Emma was able to get to the hoop. We just could not sustain that type of play in the second half. It is hard to win games in any league when you get out-rebounded and missed a ton of layups.”

In the opening minutes of the second half, AMD went on another scoring rampage, a 9-2 spree, fueled by a trey from Giannikas, a pair of foul shots by DaShea Cochran and two interior hoops by Graney.

After the squads split the next 10 points, AMD put the game out of reach for good with an 11-1 run that was capped off with a 3-pointer from Emily Hritz.

The threes were falling for both teams in the final minutes, as they were trading long distance shots to end this round of four matchup. Still hit three, late shots from beyond the arc for BeeGraphix, while Giannikas displayed her long shooting touch with a pair.

“The ball never sticks on one side of the court with our offense,” Rathway said. “The ball is always moving and the girls have really bought into that system. We have had a lot of balance on offense this year and tonight was one of those nights where our offense was in rhythm.”