A 14-point, 20-rebound performance from Mykia Lee helped spur Cheektowaga’s girls basketball team to a 43-35 victory over crosstown and league rival Maryvale Friday.

Cheektowaga, which lost to the Lady Flyers by six earlier this season, left no doubt about who would emerge victorious in the rematch, leading from start to finish. The Lady Warriors took a 17-10 lead after the opening quarter and maintained a similar margin for the bulk of the game.

Maryvale didn’t help its cause by missing more than half of its 36 chances from the charity stripe (15-of-36) for the game.

“We just missed on some early opportunities again offensively, and to their credit, they made their chances count, especially at the free throw line,” Maryvale coach Tim Klimtzak said. “It was still probably my team’s best effort of the year; everyone contributed, from top to bottom.”

“Maryvale is always a big game for us, and Friday was an intense game for sure,” Cheektowaga coach Lynnae Fenton said. “Our girls did not let up and kept working throughout all four quarters to ensure the victory. To Maryvale’s credit, they did a great job on defense.”

Taliyah Hopkins (four rebounds, two assists) also scored 14 points for the Lady Warriors, while Andrea Montgomery added seven points, three steals and two blocks. Telliah Bursie contributed six points and seven rebounds.

Maryvale was led by Emily Speidel’s 10 points and five rebounds, while Brittany Starzynski added nine points, 12 rebounds and four steals.

Neither team had much success in their other respective recent games, with Central falling to Eden on January 25, 51-44, and Pioneer on Monday, 59-27, and Maryvale losing to both Springville on Jan. 17, 35-32, and East Aurora two days later, 37-19.

After playing Eden to a 12-11 first-quarter, Cheektowaga saw the Lady Raiders expand their advantage to seven points, 27-20, by halftime. Eden's lead wouldn't waver much from that point on, as the Lady Warriors were unable to make enough of a run at any point over the final three quarters to realistically contest for the comeback bid.

Hopkins led Cheektowaga with 12 points, while Lee added 11 points and five rebounds. Kandace Hay also scored 11 points, while Jazzae Verse added 10 points, four steals, three rebounds and two assists to give the Lady Warriors four double-digit scorers.

Things didn't go nearly as well for the Lady Warriors against Pioneer, as Cheektowaga quickly found itself trailing by a 23-8 margin that would prove to be too big a hole to bounce back from -- especially after Pioneer went on a 28-15 run over the next two quarters to take a 51-23 lead into the final frame. Pioneer also dominated from behind the three-point line, making six trifectas to help increase its lead over the course of that run.

Verse led the way for Cheektowaga with 11 points, five rebounds and two steals, while Lee added eight points, six rebounds and five steals. Bursie chipped in with four points, five rebounds and a block, while Toni Morrison and Olivia Howard combined efforts to pull down 19 rebounds.

Cheektowaga (5-8, 4-4 ECIC III) takes on Springville tonight and East Aurora Tuesday in games where the Lady Warriors could potentially improve their league standing. 

Maryvale, meanwhile, came up just short in its loss at Springville, rallying from a nine-point deficit to start the fourth quarter to pull within a basket in regulation's dying seconds. Unfortunately for the Lady Flyers, Springville was good enough from the free-throw line down the stretch -- negating Maryvale's defensive effort that limited Springville's top player to just eight points for the game.

"Since we played Depew at the beginning of January, we've been working hard on putting a full game together and taking care of the ball," Klimtzak said. "We've played some really good ball since then, but we've just fallen short of actually winning."

Rachel Stotz scored nine points and grabbed five rebounds in what Klimtzak called "probabyl Rachel's best game of the season" to lead Maryvale, while Speidel also scored nine points.

Maryvale then fell behind East Aurora by a 19-5 margin after the first half against East Aurora, which proved to be too large a gap to overcome in what was certainly a defensive struggle. The Lady Flyers did rally to outscore East Aurora in the second half, 18-14, but an injury to starter Mindy Odrobina proved to be costly -- though Klimtzak was proud of the way Leanne Vanaker filled in for Odrobina.

"Leanne did well stepping up for us in Mindy's absence, especially on the defensive side of the ball," Klimtzak said. "In the grand scheme of things, they just hit their shots in the first half and we didn't. They made their opportunities count, and when ours started to fall in the second half, we had already dug ourselves too deep of a hole to climb out of."

Speidel led the way for Maryale with eight points, while Stotz chipped in with four rebounds and four blocks.

Maryvale (2-9, 1-6 ECIC III) will hold a Coaches Vs. Cancer fundraiser as part of tonight’s contest against Depew. The Lady Flyers will then travel to Amherst Tuesday.

email: jnadolinski@beenews.com