goryanova pg 5 12-8-22

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Category: Current Issue

In the midst of a stressful road game last week – a 13-point fourth-quarter lead disappearing by the minute as the home crowd gets into full throat kind of stressful – PSA’s girls’ Prep basketball team kept its composure.
Last year, they would have lost the game by 10 points.
This year, the Mustangs stayed with it and beat Blair Academy, 87-84. A lot of good things happened along the way, but the biggest one was Ines Goryanova being Ines Goryanova.
“She’s been an A every game. Every game,” PSA coach Devin Hill said of his sensational point guard, who finished with 30 points, four assists, three rebounds, and two steals. “She’s been lights out, on another level right now. I couldn’t ask any more from her. Against Blair, she’s going back and forth, they’re hitting big momentum shots and she’s just coming right down with the crowd screaming and letting her know, and just making shots.”
Said Goryanova, who punctuated two of her makes by blowing kisses to the crowd: “When the environment is like that it makes the game more fun. It takes a lot to take those shots and for my team to trust me in those shots. And then when you hit a big shot, the way the crowd reacts, it makes the feeling even better and the whole team goes crazy.”
Goryanova, from London, is averaging 20.9 points, 3.1 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 4.7 steals for the 5-2 Mustangs. Other teammates have made significant jumps in their game from last year as well – Janeya Grant (21 points vs Blair) and Genevive Wedemeyer (15 points including two huge made free throws) in particular – but this is the player Hill envisioned when he watched film of her as a seventh grader and recruited her to PSA two years ago.
The ability has always been there, and now the natural progression of a player in her junior season plus the physical growth since she’s been in the U.S. has combined to create a special player. She already holds more than a dozen Division I offers, and more will continue to spill in this season and next summer.
“I do think I’ve developed a lot,” said Goryanova, who is also much more engaged defensively than in the past. “I feel more mature in how I play, and I think people see that but there’s always things I could improve. It’s little things that just add up in games, like not boxing out sometimes or being sloppy with a pass. Those things need to be better.
“I feel like my attitude has gotten better too. Last year I would get in my head a lot. This year, I don’t do that at all, which I feel is really important for me. If I missed a few shots, I’d get in my head, and it would get worse. This year I haven’t been doing that. I know I still have another shot.”
The Mustangs kept their momentum rolling the next day when they went to St. Andrew’s and steamrolled their way to a 75-38 win. Playing just the first three quarters, Goryanova had 19 points, three rebounds, and five steals, while KC Cedano finished with 10 points and nine rebounds, and Grant had nine points.
Stephen Nalbandian
Putnam Science Academy
Sports Information Director

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