The Homer girls basketball team rained threes on Mexico early Saturday at Homer High School, forcing the Tigers out of their shell in a 50-39 Trojan win.
Homer knocked down seven 3-pointers in the first half, making Mexico extend out its 3-2 zone and get into a full-court press. Anya Gofkowski and Izzy Small both knocked down a pair from deep and Lauren Franco, Lizzie McCloy and Maddie Morgan all made one.
The Trojans knew they’d have to make threes to stop Mexico from packing the paint. They were willing and able Saturday, which made all the difference.
“It determined how the game went,” Gofkowski said. “I think if we missed those, we would’ve been down and it would’ve completely changed the entire game. It lifted us up and got us together.”
“I think we were a little panicked at first because they were getting stuff on us,” McCloy added. “Then we got back and remembered this is who we are.”
Homer got down 6-0, but Small and Gofkowski’s first threes of the day evened it up. McCloy made it a 9-8 Homer lead, then the Trojans led the rest of the way.
“It’s just stepping in with confidence and shooting,” Gofkowski said.
“The atmosphere around helps, too,” McCloy said. “Having the fans, having your bench and your team there to support you, it’s a really nice thing.”
Homer was handling Mexico’s press with relative ease for most of the second quarter, but Small went down with an injury and didn’t return. That left Homer without its starting point guard after a week full of bad news.
Kaylee Darling, a senior, was ruled out for the season this week with a knee injury. Homer is already without Brayden Partigianoni, who is recovering from a knee injury from last year. Kaylee Taylor was also on the JV team Saturday after playing the last few games with the varsity squad.
Add in some extra foul trouble, and Homer felt like it was swimming upstream at points.
“To get a win against Mexico feels very good,” head coach Brad Sovocool said. “Our backs were certainly against the wall with the news about Kaylee. Izzy Small going down in the first half makes things more challenging. She’s our primary ball handler and a lot of the stuff we run runs through Izzy.”
The win felt extra special to the players, given the Darling news and a two-game skid heading in.
“Coming off of two really tough losses and the injuries on top of it, we needed this, to get out of our little slump,” Gofkowski said. “We were on a high, then we had two weeks off with Christmas, then we lost two games and we lost two players. This was important for us to be able to get back in the swing of things and get back to how we left off.”
With Franco, the team’s leading scorer, in a bit of a funk shooting the ball Saturday, McCloy stepped up on both ends of the floor. The junior forward has played her best basketball of late and Sovocool is happy to see that.
“To have that presence in the post opens stuff up for other individuals on the court,” Sovocool said. “The difference in Lizzie McCloy lately is the level of physicality she’s playing with. She has the skill. We see it in practice and we’re finally starting to unlock that in the game setting. It’s awesome to see her gain that confidence and contribute.”
Gofkowski and Franco each led the Trojans with 14 points, McCloy added nine points, Small had six points, Makenna Pym scored four points and Morgan had her three.
Homer, now 3-4, will look to even its record at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday at home against Cazenovia.
