WILMINGTON — Padua hosted Ursuline in the teams’ basketball opener on Nov. 30, and the Raiders opened up a big lead in an eventual 67-47 win over the improved Pandas.
Both teams got off to slow starts, with the shooting taking a while to heat up. But Ursuline’s defense is always ready to go, and after Grace Trerotola gave Padua a 1-0 lead with a free throw, GG Banks got the transition game going for the Raiders. The freshman turned a steal into the Raiders’ first field goal, and another steal ended up in two more points. Banks turned the next forced turnover into an assist, finding Taylor Brown for two, and after rebounding a missed free throw, Banks fed Brown with a highlight-reel assist to make it 8-2.
Abby Grillo, the former Ursuline player now at Padua, scored the Pandas’ first field goal of the season after taking a feed from Kai Dwirantwi. The Pandas rebounded as well as Ursuline, but they could not convert those opportunities into points, and the Raiders held a 13-4 lead after one.
Ursuline turned up the pace in the second, pulling away from Padua. Sklyar Bolden came off the bench and immediately hit a three-pointer, and Brown led an aggressive defense that created offense. Later in the second, Chamira Marshall Brothers nailed consecutive triples, and Banks scored in transition to end a 19-4 run for the Raiders.
Ursuline kept coming in the third, but the Pandas found some offense themselves. Dwirantwi, playing her first high school game, sprinkled some buckets in among the Raiders’ field goals, and Abigail Hayes closed out the third with a corner three for Padua. The Pandas scored 17 points in each of the final two quarters.
Dwirantwi led Padua with 13 points, while Grillo had 13. The Pandas (0-1) host Mount Pleasant on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.
For the Raiders, Brown had 15 and Banks 13. Ursuline (1-0) plays St. Elizabeth in the Raiders’ home opener on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
All photos by Mike Lang.
