Sports
Girls Basketball: Rich Central Takes Down Thornton
The Olympians use intimidating pressure to defeat the Wildcats 49-37.
Rich Central coach Bryan Craig has an unconventional approach to the way his girls apply traps and a full-court press.
“Rather than trying to take the ball, (our players try) to scare the girl to give them the ball,” Craig said.
Rich Central (10-7) used this mindset and defeated Thornton 49-37 on the road in a non-conference girls basketball matchup Saturday afternoon.
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Craig said the mindset stems from attempts at intimidation from his team.
“Being intimidating, yelling, screaming, help, communicating with each other,” he said. “I like to punk my girls in practice, so nobody can ever punk them, so to speak."
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The Olympians came into the game hoping to gain momentum as the playoffs approach.
“It’s all preparation for the playoffs; that’s all I care about this year,” said Craig, whose team lost last year in a 3A sectional.
Rich Central came out strong in the first quarter as junior point guard Alexandra Stanford banked in a jumper as the buzzer sounded to give the Olympians a 16-9 lead.
In the second quarter, Thornton (7-10) battled back to within 16-13 when junior point guard Devona Davis nailed a three. However, the Wildcat run was short-lived as Olympian junior guard Tatianna Newell hit two threes in a row to give Rich Central a 22-13 advantage.
Short runs were the story of the game for Thornton.
“We just didn’t capitalize on our runs,” Thornton coach Samuel Kenan said. “And we just didn’t do what was necessary to win this ballgame.”
In the third quarter, Rich Central pulled away, taking a 37-24 advantage.
In the fourth quarter, Thornton pulled within eight points twice, but Olympian junior forward Chaz Duson put the game away, scoring a press-break layup to make the score 47-37.
Duson said her team can attack foes with multiple scorers.
“We've got a lot of scorers, a lot of scorers,” said Duson, who finished with a team-high 15 points. She added that the game had a lot of talking on the court.
“It’s just a good win, to go back and forth with bickering. It’s kind of like a rival thing,” Duson said.
Craig said the game gave his team practice against breaking a press.
“(It) helped us understand that our point guard (Stanford), she’s efficient enough to get by many people alone," he said. "So, if we can get people out and get her to make good passes, we’ll be in good shape.”
Junior guard Ariel Sneed led Thornton with 16 points.
