BERNE — The Berne-Knox-Westerlo girls’ basketball team bounced back from a tough season-opening tournament to win its first game in league play.

The Lady Bulldogs beat Western Athletic Conference rival Canajoharie, 60-52, last Wednesday night to get an early lead in the Southern Division standings.

The Bulldogs played Schenectady Christian on Tuesday, falling by a score of 61-56.
"It was a back-and-forth game," BKW Coach Tom Galvin said on Wednesday. "We played well and they played well. We didn’t get breaks and we were running out of time. My hats off to Schenectady Christian. They hit the shots they had to."

Andrea Van Dyke led the Bulldogs with 23 points. Christine Sikule scored 14 points, 12 on three three-point baskets.

BKW got good defensive performances by Cara Swain and Brittany Krimsky. They guarded Schenectady Christian’s top two players.
"Cara did a good job on Katie Kaidas," Galvin said. "She scored 25 points but a lot of those were on free throws."

Getting a win

Against Canajoharie, four BKW players reached double figures.

C.J. Vincent and Ashley Slaver each scored 13 points to lead the Bulldogs. Sikule scored 12 points and Andrea Van Dyke also scored 12. Swain added eight points for BKW.
"I’m happy that we got that much scoring balance," said BKW Coach Tom Galvin. "If we get that much balance, we can dominate. In our two losses, we struggled offensively.
"We started to finish," Galvin added. "We do that, we’ll be tough to stop. We had four in double figures led by C.J. and Ashley, we played the way we are capable of playing."

The Bulldogs lost both of their games in the Rusty Grestini Tournament in Cohoes. BKW lost to the host school in the opening game of the tournament and then lost to Ichabod Crane in the consolation contest.
"We Always want to play up," Galvin said of playing two larger schools in the tournament. "We were the smallest fish in the pond. But we were terrible and we didn’t execute. I don’t want to make any excuses about playing up, but the way we played, we could not beat a CYO team from Cohoes."

Galvin said that some things can be gained from playing in the tournament against Cohoes, a Class B school, and Ichabod Crane, a Class A school. BKW is a smaller Class C school, which is determined by its enrollment.
"I would rather have two losses in a tougher tournament than win two in a smaller tournament that we dominate," Galvin said.

The Bulldogs’ players are young this season with just two seniors and four juniors, two sophomores and one ninth-grader.
"They had not come together like I thought they would," Galvin said. "The Canajoharie game was one step up from the tournament ."

The win over Canajoharie should boost the confidence of the BKW players.
"The win was a big one after the tournament," Galvin said. "I think the girls were questioning themselves. The first one should give them more confidence," he said of the win.

The Lady Bulldogs will try to bounce back with a home game against Schoharie on Tuesday. At the Christmas holiday, the Bulldogs will participate in the Greenwich Tournament.
"It’s a long season," Galvin said. "This was our second league game. The Schenectady Christian coach said that they will have a hard time going undefeated before meeting us again. I said we will to. This league is tough."