HF-L Explodes Early, Defeats Olympia In Return To Action

February 8, 2021

Honeoye Falls-Lima 62, Greece Olympia 41

It's been a long time coming.

If memory serves me right, we went 334 days without a NYSPHSAA basketball game played, and it had been 338 days since the last handful I attended - Section 2's finals at HVCC. The streak none of us ever wanted finally came to a halt Monday, as games tipped off in select parts of New York, with the greater Rochester area leading the charge. The season may have started three months later than usual with contact just being allowed as of the beginning of February, but Honeoye Falls-Lima looked like they were in midseason form from the jump. They used a huge 1st quarter surge to rack up a cushion that was more than enough to keep a scrappy Greece Olympia group at bay.

Teagan Kamm made the most of her season opener, an 18 point night in an impressive win for HF-L.

It didn't take long for the hosts to make their presence felt. Hannah Selke (Honeoye Falls-Lima 2021) knocked down a three off the opening tip, and it was off to the races from there as they shot it at a high clip & put on pressure that forced many early Olympia turnovers. They reeled off 16 straight at one point in the 1st quarter, 7 of them from Selke, while holding Olympia scoreless for a 5 minute stretch. They eventually extended their lead to as much as 22 in the 1st quarter before finishing the stanza up 26-5. Olympia started to respond and showed signs of life in the 2nd quarter, and they saw some shots fall along the way, primarily off the right hand of Taylor Jung (Greece Olympia 2021), who had 9 in the frame. However, HF-L started to establish Teagan Kamm (Honeoye Falls-Lima 2022) offensively, and her eight 2nd quarter points helped them go into the locker room up 36-17.

The 2nd half was largely a continuation of the 2nd quarter; Olympia continued to battle, HF-L continued to hold serve. The hosts stretched their lead to as much as 27 after an Olivia Friedlander (HF-L 2021) bucket made it 47-20 midway through the 3rd quarter. Olympia scored 9 of the last 11 of the 3rd, trimming the deficit back to 20 at 49-29, and eventually scrapped their way back to 15 at 55-40 midway through the 4th, but the fast start proved to be far too much to overcome.

Hannah Selke finished with 19 points, including 4 threes, to lead Honeoye Falls-Lima. Teagan Kamm made an impact on the glass and added 18 points in the win. Greece Olympia was paced by Taylor Jung, who scored all 19 of her points in the last three quarters.

Taylor Jung went to work & helped Olympia hang tough in the final three quarters, and she tied for a game high 19 points in defeat.

#ThoughtsFromTheBaseline

- Spectator limits, bench chairs spaced out, mask wearing, plexiglass at the scorers' table, hoops to jump through just to get in for games... I don't care. I'd wear a clown costume and give up iced coffee (ehh... maybe) to have basketball in New York. Happy to see it happening!

- To the game. Considering the circumstances around this season, the anticipation of it not happening just a few weeks ago, how few girls were actually finding opportunities to compete and get up & down the court through much of the winter, and six days of practices with no scrimmages leading up to this... I'm not expecting a work of art early in the season & I don't think anyone should. That being said, I was very impressed with the early performance HF-L produced. For a stretch, they looked like they were in midseason form. Ball was moving on O vs. Olympia's zone, they were getting good shots & hitting them, defensive rotations were pretty crisp... a pretty eye-opening start.

- Of course, there's the other side. It was a nightmarish start for Olympia, as documented by how much they fell behind, but I give them credit for picking up their compete level and digging in the rest of the way. I've seen this story plenty of times - a team gets jumped on early, they roll over, and it gets bad in a hurry. This wasn't that. They played pretty even the rest of the way, and it's not like HF-L completely called off the dogs. The scoreboard may not have been the best indicator of this, but I think they got a lot out of this game & perhaps grew a little from it.

Hannah Selke was a force for HF-L as she lit up the scoreboard early & finished with 19 points in HF-L's win.

- Usually it doesn't work like this with people from the same school, but I'm at two very different levels of familiarity with Teagan Kamm & Hannah Selke. However, they both were impressive in their own ways. I've only seen Teagan about 100 times at this point, so what the 6'1" 2022 brought was 'business as usual' in my eyes, though she's getting noticeably smoother athletically & more comfortable offensively to go with her usual defensive/shot blocking presence. I may be wrong, but I think this was the first time I've ever watched Hannah play. 2021 guard, pretty good athlete and clearly a capable perimeter shooter with a smooth stroke. She had her prints all over the fast HF-L start. Always nice to have the inside-out threat that HF-L brings to the table.