Spartans impressive in Aponte’s debut as varsity coach

A balanced matchup of back-and-forth as the Wickliffe Blue Devils made the 56-mile trek from Lake County to visit the Conneaut Spartans in a makeup girls basketball game on Wednesday night. The host team would fall 45-42 thanks to two glaring statistics: they couldn’t stop Wickliffe junior Ava Gabriel who had 22 points on the night, and free throws were not falling. As a team Conneaut was 1-of-13 from the free throw line – something new coach Jayson Aponte said shocks him because they do great at practice.

Senior Finley Evans led the Spartans with 12 points (all on three-point attempts). Sophomore Alexis Kiser had 11 points and senior Kayla Farley added nine before fouling out of the contest, after a solid game and guiding the team on defense.

Senior forward Samara Young tacked on 10 points from the paint for Wickliffe, along with two crucial free throws in the fourth quarter.

Enjoy our photo gallery of the game below. (We are working to correct an issue allowing free downloads of photos.)