Lauryn Engle had the hot hand in the first half to help lead the Elba Lancers to their third consecutive Section V championship Friday night at Letchworth -- 54-42 over Whitesville.
Engle hit 67 percent of her shots, going five for eight on three-point attempts along with one two-point field goal for 17 points on the night.
The Lady Lancers had an 18-point lead at the half over Whitesville in the Class D2 game.
On the night, Elba was seven of 13 on three-point attempts while Whitesville was two for 13.
Scoring from the outside was Elba taking advantage of what Whitesville gave them, said Coach Tom Redband.
"Whitesville is clearly taught to pack in the paint and have a lot of gap help and a lot of help on the inside," Redband said. "A lot of the layups weren't necessarily there. One of their goals is to take charge so the three-pointers were open, but you have to make them. We did the first half."
Whitesville managed to tighten up the score to only a single-digit lead for Elba at a couple of points in the fourth quarter but the Lancers stayed calm and carried on.
"When it gets like that you want to calm them down and I think the girls stayed calm," Redband said. "When you're up at half-time by 18 points it doesn't mean you win by 36. They kept their cool pretty well. I just think we've needed to kind of slow down and breath "
Brynn Walczak also had a big night, scoring 15 points, getting eight points on free throws. She had 12 rebounds.
Leah Bezon scored eight points, had 10 rebounds. She also blocked three shots and had three steals.
Taylor Augello scored nine points, had seven rebounds and two steals.
Maddie Howard led the team in steals Friday with four while scoring three points.
For Whitesville, Fayln Lewis-Ellison scored 17 points and Vanessa Hall scored 15.
Elba had 12 total steals to five for Whitesville.
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Photos by Thomas Ognibene from Steve Ognibene Photography.
