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CF girls survive slow start |
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Wednesday, 21 January 2009 |
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By ERIC BENEVIDES Sports writer CENTRAL FALLS --- When you commit nine turnovers and go scoreless in the first 7:26 of a basketball game, the odds are extremely high that you are well on your way to an ugly loss.
Central Falls High got off to that nightmarish start in its Division III contest against visiting Mount Pleasant High on Tuesday afternoon. Fortunately for the Warriors, the Kilties also encountered their fair share of struggles in the early going, and the end result was a convincing 41-18 win for the Warriors.
The victory was the Warriors’ fifth in as many division games and kept them tied for first place with Hope High, which also remained unbeaten in league play on Tuesday with a convincing win over Our Lady of Fatima High. The Warriors will host the Blue Wave next Tuesday at 7 p.m.
The Warriors have yet to be tested in their five league games, winning them by an average of 21.6 points, but against the Kilties, they had to worry about overcoming their very slow start, which featured several missed easy layups that didn’t please CF coach Joe Handy.
“If we made our layups in the first half, this game wouldn’t have been that close,” offered Handy. “We missed a lot of layups. We were getting the ball where we wanted it, but we just weren’t finishing.”
The Kilties, who dipped to 2-2 in the division (3-4 overall), didn’t fare any better from the floor and turned the ball over six times before making their first points of the game on a layup by Latiana German 5:23 into the game.
A little more than a minute later, freshman Anairis Rodriguez got the hosts on the board by sinking the front end of a 1-and-1. After both teams traded jumpers, the Warriors produced the next five points to capture the lead for good.
The Warriors eventually went into intermission with a 15-6 lead, thanks to a three-pointer from the top of the key by senior co-captain Jenny Gonzalez that was sandwiched around the putbacks of a pair of offensive rebounds by junior forward Sakira Wilson in the final 90 seconds of the half.
The Kilties kicked off the second half with a layup in the opening seconds, but the Warriors responded with a 17-2 run that covered the next seven-plus minutes and put their visitors away for good.
The Warriors finished the contest with a season-high 28 turnovers, but they also helped force the Kilties to commit 32 (16 in each half), and for the ninth time in 10 games this season, CF held an opponent to less than 30 points.
“It was just one of those things where it wasn’t happening,” added Handy. “The play was really sloppy on both sides. We made a lot of turnovers early, but I think we calmed down in the second half. We were just to get the girls to calm down, play defense, and focus on executing.”
The freshmen took center stage for the Warriors. Rodriguez, a center, ended up with a game-high 11 points and tore down eight rebounds, and Anjelique Cooley, a guard, scored 10 points and added six steals and five assists.
Gonzalez finished with nine points, Wilson had just six points, but a game-high 15 rebounds, and junior guard Halie Webb contributed nine rebounds and four assists.
“This was a big win against a good team,” added Handy, whose squad will play a Division II foe, Warwick Vets High, on the road on Friday before its showdown against Hope. “We’re now 9-1 overall, but we still have a lot of work to do. But overall, I’m happy with the way we’ve been playing.”
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Last Updated ( Friday, 23 January 2009 )
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