Percentages in the game of basketball suggest that the closer you are to the basket when you shoot, the more points you will score.

That's exactly what happened Monday night in Shenandoah Valley's 47-30 Schuylkill League victory over Weatherly. The Devils patient offense consistently worked the ball down low inside the paint to score easy layups. Beginning with a 7-0 run at the onset, Shenandoah never looked back in a near perfect performance on both sides of the ball."We knew Weatherly likes a rat race kind of a game and that's not our style," said Shenandoah coach Chris Conroy. "Our team executed our game plan which was to control the time of possession and slow them down. I guess you can say we forced our will upon them."Weatherly did not score its first field goal until Shelby Berger's jumper with just 1:10 to go in the first quarter. Her bucket followed two free throw conversions by Emily Zoscin to make the score 7-4.The Wreckers stayed within range in the first half. Zoscin's running one hander and then her bucket after a steal brought her team to within three at 20-17 with 2:30 to go before the intermission.Despite being down by only seven at the break, Weatherly's coach Kevin Kringe knew his young team was in trouble."They were executing everything well," he said. "We could not push the ball up court and they were controlling the entire tempo of the game."A long deuce by Shelby Berger and Zoscin's layup off a steal closed the gap to 25-21 with 5:40 to go in the third, but that would turn out to be Weatherly's final points from the field in the quarter. The Devils then went on another 7-0 run, with more inside off the glass baskets to increase their lead to 11 points at the 3:43 mark. Throwing in a few three-pointers, the Devils put the game on ice early in the fourth."Our games have been like roller coaster rides so far this season and tonight proved we're not quite ready for the big stage yet," said Kringe. "We can't replicate what Shenandoah did to us in practice, where we have to go to a second and third option to get an open look for a shot. Hopefully we can learn from this."Shenandoah (8-4) was led by senior Marcella Creasy, who scored 14 points and dominated the defensive boards. Zoscin paced the Wreckers with 12 points, while Berger and Megan Peifer each threw in eight.BASKET BLUES … Weatherly struggled all night to get good looks at the rim and only managed nine field goal attempts in the third quarter, and just seven more shots in the final eight minutes.KEEP AWAY … Late in the fourth quarter, Shenandoah was able to keep possession of the ball without taking a shot for nearly two minutes.PRESS BREAKER … In an attempt to change the momentum of the game in the second half, Weatherly put full-court pressure on Shenandoah, but to no avail as the Devils methodically moved the ball across the half court line to set up its offense.SHENANDOAH VALLEYA. Demalis 0-2-4 -2, E.Demalis 2-1-2-5, Teaschenko 1-2-2-4, Creasy 4-4-6-14, Wargo 2-0-2-4, Najera 3-2-2-9, Michalik 3-2-2-9. TOTALS: 15-13-20-47.WEATHERLYZoscin 4-3-3-12, Hartz 0-0-0-0, Berger 4-0-0-8, Gillott 0-0-0-0, Peifer 2-4-4-8, Caravella 0-0-0-0. DeSpirito 0-0-0-0. Gower 1-0-0-2 Hoffman 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 11-7-7-30.Shenandoah Vy. 11 14 11 11 - 47Weatherly 8 9 6 7 - 30Three-pointers: SV - Creasy 2, Najera 1, Michalik 1; W - Zoscin 1.