Varsity Coach Chris Schofield led his 4-4 preseason Lady Bruins onto the hardwood at home against the 9-1 Del Norte Lady Warriors Wednesday night and ran into a fit and disciplined Warrior team that came ready for a fight.
The Lady Warriors led the Lady Bruins early in the first quarter before an injury to a Lady Warrior on a drive to the basket that caused a 6:00 minute delay. When play resumed, the Lady Warriors led 9-12 and then extended their lead to 9-19 before the end of the first period. Sophomore forward Sierra Fitzhugh #00 came up big again leading Lady Bruin scorers with 5 of their 9 points in the first quarter.
The Lady Warriors stopped Brookings drives into the lane and forced the Lady Bruins to pick up their dribble forcing turnovers by stepping in driving lanes and doubling the outlet pass. Sophomore Lexi Schofield #1 led the Lady Bruins with 4 points in the second period as senior forward Mickey Fulton hit a 3 pointer and Sierra Fitzhugh drove inside and hit a bucket after being fouled adding 3 points of the 13 the Lady Bruins had at the half.
The second half started with the Lady Bruins trailing 22-36 and the Warriors picked up right where they left off beating the Lady Bruins to their spots and trapping the passer forcing Lady Bruins turnovers. The Lady Bruins managed only 3 points in the third period off of a Sierra Fitzhugh 3 pointer, while the Lady Warriors ran up 13 points 8 of which were Del Norte free throws as Brookings was forced to foul to try and slow the Lady Warriors down.
The trapping Lady Warrior defense kept the Lady Bruins from putting any consistent offense together throughout the game allowing the Bruin ladies to only put 33 points in the game. Sophomore forward Sierra Fitzhugh #00 led all Lady Bruin scorers with 11 points hitting a basket, two 3’s and hitting from the line 3 of 5 times. Junior guard Avana Pettus #10 scored 7 from two baskets and then went 3 of 5 from the line and Lexi Schofield #1 scored 6 points hitting two baskets and going 2 for 2 from the free throw line.
The Wild Coast Compass caught up with Coach Schofield after the game and asked him what he thought of how the game went…”I don’t think we responded real well to adversity tonight. We had a real tough night shooting the ball and I felt like we let that affect our energy and confidence in other aspects of the game.” Acknowledging Del Norte’s play, “Del Norte has some real good athletes and real good basketball players. They beat us up on the glass pretty good and really got in a groove offensively.” Coach Schofield said.
On a positive note Coach Schofield went on to say “We aren’t a finished product and we’ve got a lot of work to do. We are going to take a couple of days off to rest up and get healthy. Then we’ll get right back in the gym and get better. This group has responded all year to the challenge to improve and bounce back from tough games.”
Please Like, Share and Follow the …
