West Seneca East girls basketball coach Sam Gioia saw his players bounce back from a sluggish first half against Starpoint with what he called “our best half of the year,” but it still wasn’t enough to break the Lady Trojans’ season-long winless streak on January 10.

In the end, Starpoint’s 29-11 halftime advantage proved to be too much to overcome, as East fell short in its best chance at snapping out of its funk by a 43-36 margin.

“We just weren’t playing together in the first half, but we came out as a whole new team in the second half,” Gioia said. “We had the chances in the end, but we just couldn’t get our shots to fall.”

East’s zone defense stymied Starpoint in the third quarter, as the Lady Trojans created multiple turnovers and forced the Lady Spartans into a myriad of bad shots — which let East trim Starpoint’s advantage down to eight points (35-27) going into the final stanza.

Unfortunately, East’s rally fell short as the Lady Trojans turned cold offensively, missing some layups that could have helped them cut further into Starpoint’s lead.

“We just couldn’t finish out the game,” Gioia said.

Erin Barrett led the way for East with 11 points, nine rebounds and four steals, while Emily Barrett added nine points, nine rebounds and three assists. Gabby Lewis pitched in with seven points and six rebounds, while Bailee Gallivan added six points.

Things didn’t go nearly as well for East in its games immediately before and after the Starpoint tilt, as the Lady Trojans were knocked off by Lake Shore (42-16) on January 5, and by Iroquois (52-27) on Thursday.

East’s offensive woes against Lake Shore proved too difficult an obstacle for the Lady Trojans to overcome, as East — which trailed 14-3 right out of the gate — had a five-point third quarter as its best offensive output for the game.

“Lake Shore was a much quicker team than they’ve been in the past — it’s their best team in years — and I think they caught us off guard with how good they were,” Gioia said. “We struggled to make shots again, which didn’t help.”

Lewis finished the game with six points, 10 steals and seven rebounds, while Erin Barrett added three points, 12 rebounds and five steals. Emily Picone had five steals, while Emily Barrett assisted on all four of East’s baskets for the game.

Iroquois, meanwhile, was nearly more proficient from long range (eight three-point baskets) than East was at shooting layups, which helped the Lady Chiefs jump out to a 26-8 halftime lead that grew to 43-17 going into the fourth quarter.

“We fought with them the entire game, and we made every shot they took a difficult one,” Gioia said. “We pushed the ball well, but just missed some easy baskets that, had we made them, could have kept the game closer.”

Lewis finished the game with 10 points and five rebounds, while Picone added five points and three rebounds.

East (0-10, 0-5 division) looked to crack the win column Tuesday at Hamburg, but information about that contest was not available at press time. The Lady Trojans close out their week Friday at Williamsville South.

“We’ve been playing better these last few games — we’re looking more like a strong team — but we’re still missing the easy shots which are preventing us from really being in our games,” Gioia said. “We’ve been working on making our layups for a good part of our practices every day, both with and without pressure, so that we can hopefully work out that problematic area in our upcoming games.”