TAMAQUA — Carly Teaschenko knew before the girls’ basketball season started that Shenandoah Valley would need to find another source of offense to make up for the weapons it lost to graduation.
Tuesday night, Teaschenko was that source.
Teaschenko scored a game-high 18 points to lead the Blue Devils to a 48-26 non-league victory over Tamaqua in the home debut for Raiders’ first-year coach Erika Davis.
“I felt like I needed to get a lot more shots in,” Teaschenko said. “We have Marcella (Creasy) and I feel like we need another player who can go the basket like Kristina (Nieddu) did last year. So I wanted to try to take up that spot.”
Teaschenko also had six rebounds, two blocks and two steals. Creasy added 11 points and Molly Michalik, another new source of offense for the Devils, put in 10.
Shenandoah Valley (2-1) struggled to convert chances into points early, trailing Tamaqua for the first few minutes of the
game. Teaschenko, a junior who started last year as well, turned that trend around, putting in six first-quarter points to pull the Devils in front.
“We didn’t think she was going to start last year. She kind of surprised us in camp,” Shenandoah coach Chris Conroy said of Teaschenko. “She has toughness and athleticism, so we’re counting on her to get the ball in and around the basket — either off the dribble or she cuts hard. We’ll need that going forward every night.”
Michalik, also a junior, added five first-quarter points to hand the Blue Devils an 11-6 lead after the opening frame. Her 3-pointer midway through the second quarter finished off a 15-1 run for Shenandoah that put the Blue Devils up 19-7.
The effort from both Teaschenko and Michalik is exactly what Conroy wants to see to supplement Creasy’s scoring on a nightly basis, though it’s not quite the finished product yet.
“All five have to be accountable,” Conroy said. “We’re getting there. It’s not far from where we need to be, as evidenced by how many we missed right at the rim tonight. But we moved the ball really well, we ran things the way we wanted to. We’d like to finish a little better, but overall it was a better night than the other two games offensively.”
Tamaqua (0-3) kept close to Shenandoah in the second quarter. The Raiders scored five straight points after Michalik’s 3 to cut the deficit to 19-11, but a bucket by Allison Wargo in the closing minute put the Blue Devils back up by 10 at the intermission.
Teaschenko started the second half with a 3 and Creasy hit seven straight points to pull Shenandoah virtually out of reach.
“At times we looked like a good ball club and at times I feel like the tempo of the game took over on us,” Davis said. “They started pushing the ball in transition and we didn’t get back. Then they get up six to eight points on us and that’s what dug the hole.
“We’re not a comeback team. We know that. Getting down early right now is a struggle for us.”
Courtney Hoffman led Tamaqua with nine points, followed by Kirstin Jones with six and Kayla Sherry with five.
The trio scored the first six points for Tamaqua before the Raiders’ shooters went silent until nearly four minutes into the second quarter.
“That seems to be our spark, we start off very well. Then we either get complacent or we get tired,” Davis said. “The minute we get tired and fatigued, it controls our game and we do the little things wrong, making the pass or missing the cut.”
Davis took over the program this summer after Joe Berezwick stepped down. She graduated in 2007 as Tamaqua’s all-time leading scorer with 2,317 points.
Game Summary
SHENANDOAH VALLEY (48) — Creasy 3 3-4 11, Teaschenko 7 3-4 18, Michalik 4 0-0 10, Wargo 3 0-0 6, A. Demalis 0 0-0 0, E. Demalis 1 0-0 3, Najera 0 0-0 0, Monahan 0 0-0 0, Kowalick 0 0-0 0, Gallo 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 6-8 48.
TAMAQUA (26) — Jones 2 1-5 6, Hoffman 4 1-2 9, Stauffenberg 0 0-0 0, McVicker 0 0-0 0, Sherry 2 0-0 5, Ceci 1 1-1 3, Agosti 0 0-0 0, Amershek 0 1-2 1, Hromyak 0 0-0 0, Pedersen 0 2-4 2, Boran-Smith 0 0-0 0, Shamonsky 0 0-0 0. Totals 9 6-14 26.
Shen. (2-1) 11 10 17 10 — 48 Tam. (0-3) 6 5 5 10 — 26
3-point FGs: Creasy 2, Teaschenko, Michalik 2, E. Demalis, Jones, Sherry
JV score: Shenandoah Valley 24-20