Lathrop and Soliday lead Gorillas in win

DAVENPORT – Juniors Glenna Soliday and Clare Lathrop both scored 20 points to lead the Gorillas' girls basketball team to a 54-39 girls win over Waterville, Saturday, Jan. 4. It was the Gorillas fifth straight win and improved their record to 9-1.

Glenna Soliday proved to the Shockers that she couldn't be ignored. She hit two long-range shots in the game's opening minutes that opened the inside so that Lathrop could take care of business under the basket. By the end of the quarter, Lathrop scored eight points on close range shots to go along with Glenna Soliday's two bombs. Between them, they scored 14 points as Davenport jumped to a 16-10 lead after one quarter.

The duo continued their strong play in the second quarter. Glenna Soliday made two more 3-pointers, giving her 15 points for the half. The Gorillas held a 31-20 lead at intermission.

In the third quarter, Davenport outscored Waterville 19-10. Besides Glenna Soliday's and Lathrop's scoring, Addie Schneider got into the score book with five points. At the end of the quarter, the Gorillas led 50-30. Despite scoring few points in the fourth quarter, Davenport won 54-39.

Freshman Charlotte Soliday only scored two points for the Gorillas, but she was the gas that fueled their flame. She out hustled everyone on the floor to collect the most rebounds, many of which were converted into fast break points.

Besides Lathrop's game high 21 points, she was a beast on the defensive end of the court, where she collected nine rebounds. She also had four blocked shots and five steals. Glenna Soliday scored 18 points, pulled down eight rebounds and recorded four steals. Schneider scored five points and had three rebounds. Samantha Stiles scored two points, had three rebounds, one steal and one blocked shot. McGuire Knopp scored two points and grabbed four rebounds. Charlotte Soliday scored two points and had a game high, 10 rebounds, and two steals.

Hanna Nelson scored 15 points for Waterville.

"Our defense was pretty good tonight, though we need to work on blocking out for rebounds," Davenport head coach Stacia Soliday said. "Clare was looking pretty good and Glenna had some good outside shots. We had more rebounds and putbacks than we have had."

Lathrop was happy with her team's energy at the start of the game.

"I think we came out really strong," she said. "We had really good ball movement. I think all around we did really good for not having games for two weeks. Defensively, we did pretty well, but they beat us down the court. We need to be quicker so that doesn't happen. In the second half when Waterville pressured us, Glenna played amazing. She did really good tonight."

Schneider was most impressed with the Gorillas' defensive effort.

"We all worked together to get some really good stops," she said. "Offensively, we could probably do better. We did a good job getting the ball down into the post and got some really good shots inside. As a team we need to get in better sync. We go places at different times and have spurts at different times. We need to make sure that we're on the same page when we play."

The win improved the Gorillas' record to 9-1. Their next home game is against Newport, Tuesday, Jan. 14.