High flying Union Local spoils Abram’s milestone night
Big Red senior surpasses 1,000 point mark in loss to Jets
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STEUBENVILLE -- Makayla Abram needed nine points for reach the 1,000 mark entering Monday's match up with Union Local -- and it was pretty clear she knew it.
The Big Red senior standout put up seven first quarter points and was seemingly all over the floor, nearly missing on a couple of chances to reach the milestone before getting fouled with 4:56 to go before halftime.
She swished both shots from the line for points 999 and 1,000, sending the limited capacity crowd and her teammates into a frenzy.
"I'm very proud of her," Big Red head coach Angie Forte said of Abram. "She missed all of last year with an injury and worked very hard to get back. I'm very excited and happy for her that she was able to accomplish that this year.
"I can only imagine how much further along she could have been without that injury, but it's exciting for her to be able to come back and be able to reach that goal."
Abram finished the game with a team-high 20 points and seven rebounds, scoring half of her team's points in a 69-40 loss to high-powered Union Local.
The Jets, who have lost just three times in 19 outings, felt out Steubenville early as the teams traded the lead several times in the opening minutes. However, once the Jets took off, there was no grounding them.
"When we get out running, we're just a different team," Union Local head coach Robbie Barr said.
"We run the floor real nice, especially our big girls. It's tough to stop a running team, especially when two of them are six-foot-tall. They don't have to be wide open."
Those players with size were indeed hard to stop, as Reagan Vinskovich netted a game-high 23 points for Union Local while also pulling down a team-high six boards and Torre Kildow followed closely behind with 22 points, while Casey Kildow dished out a game-high eight assists.
"It was a good contest for us because Steubenville is a rugged team," Barr said. "They're big and we need to play bigger teams because that's what we're going to see later on in the tournament if hopefully we get down the road that far."
For Big Red (8-13), who committed 22 turnovers to Union Local's 10, the Jets transition game and quick-strike ability proved to be too much to overcome, as the Belmont County squad opened up leads of 12 and 22 points after the first and second quarters.
"They do a great job of getting up in transition, running the floor and finding the open player," Forte said. "I think what hurt us was we didn't block out very well and they got back in transition. They took advantage of their shots.
"It was a lot of little things. They have a very good program and players that do the little things right. They do a lot of things right and they take advantage of what you're not doing right. I like going against teams like that because it's good competition, No. 1, and it also shows the girls the little things that need to be done to be a successful team."
The Jets pulled ahead 58-30 at the end of three quarters and went into cruise control from there.
Kylie Maxwell also reach double figures for Big Red with 11 points, while Keira Gregor netted 12 for the Jets.
JAYVEE ACTION
Union Local also won the jayvee contest, 35-19, led by Emily Kellaway's 13 points. Aniyah Warner and Nyah Ingram each netted five points for Steubenville.
UP NEXT
Union Local: Is tentatively scheduled to travel to Barnesville on Wednesday.
Steubenville: Tentatively is slated to host Harrison Central on Thursday.
Union Local 69, Steubenville 40
Union Local 21 18 19 11 - 69
Steubenville 9 8 13 10 - 40
UNION LOCAL (16-3): C. Kildow 2 0-0 4; T. Kildow 9 3-4 22; Merritt 3 0-0 8; Gregor 4 2-2 12; Vinskovich 8 5-6 23; Goodson 0 0-0 0; Miller 0 0-0 0; Kellaway 0 0-0 0; Cheatham 0 0-0 0; Scott 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 27, 10-12; 69.
STEUBENVILLE (8-13): Thompson 0 0-0 0; Cucarese 0 0-0 0; Fleming 2 0-0 4; Maxwell 5 0-0 11; Abram 8 4-5 20; Warner 0 0-0 0; Criss 1 0-0 3; Blackwell 1 0-0 2; Hill 0 0-0 0; Jones 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 17, 4-5; 40.
3-POINT GOALS: Union Local 5 (Merritt 2, Gregor 2, T. Kildow); Steubenville 2 (Maxwell, Criss). ASSISTS: Union Local 19 (C. Kildow 8); Steubenville 11 (Cucarese 4). REBOUNDS: Union Local 18 (Vinskovich 6); Steubenville 15 (Abram 7). TURNOVERS: Union Local 10; Steubenville 22.