No team plays perfect basketball at the start of the season.
The Batavia girls definitely were not at their best Saturday night in the finals of the Attica Tip-off Tournament, but overcame some issues in the paint and defeated Dansville 59-49 to capture the championship.
The Blue Devils opened up a seven point lead in the first quarter as Brittany Mazurkiewicz had the hot hand. The senior guard scored 11 of her team-high 19 points in the opening frame, giving Batavia an 18-11 advantage.
But Dansville came back and trailed just 24-20 at the half because of a solid effort in the paint. Batavia struggled to hit layups and gave the Mustangs too many second-chance points in the period.
Margaret Infantino's 3-pointer in the closing moments brought her team to within four points going into the break.
After Infantino dropped in another trifecta early on in the second half, Dansville took a 25-24 lead on a Ryan Doerr bucket. Infantino hit another 3-pointer after Michelle Jordan scored for Batavia and Dansville had a 28-26 lead, the team's biggest of the game.
Infantino scored seven of her game-high 20 points in the third quarter and the Mustangs led 36-35 after three periods of play.
Kristen Klein scored three points near the end of the third quarter and took over early in the fourth. The 5-foot-9 junior was one of several Batavia players looking to be a strong option at forward, next to Jaycee Shirk, and she very well could be.
Klein had several fourth quarter rebounds and scored her other four points in the fourth, with the second basket putting Batavia up 45-36. In all, Batavia scored the first 10 points of the final period.
Dansville cut the deficit to four points with just over 3 minutes left, but Mazurkiewicz hit a free throw, Stacy Hein ht a pair and Shirk scored to make it 50-41 with less than two minutes to play.
Hein hit 8-of-8 foul shots in the last minute and finished with 13 points.
Mazurkiewicz won the tournament MVP as she finished with 19 points, five assists and four steals. Shirk made the all-tournament team with eight points and four blocks and Jordan pitched in six points.
Infantino made the all-tournament team with 20 points and was joined by Ashley Amidon, who scored eight points.
Dansville falls to 1-1 while Batavia and new coach Bill Wade improve to 2-0 and bring home the championship trophy.
Alexander's Rachel Pettys made the all-tournament team as her Trojans beat rival Attica 44-32 in the consolation game. She scored 11 points with 13 steals and seven boards. Anna Dominick poured in 15 points with Kate Kochmanski grabbing 13 boards to go with her five points.
Attica's Christina West had 10 points and made the all-tournament squad.
The Blue Devils fall to 0-2 while Alexander improves to 1-1.
