A different Lady Bruin baseketball team was on the floor Monday night for coach Schofield as they hosted the Hidden Valley Lady Mustangs for their last preseason match-up before starting league play at the end of the week.
The high energy Lady Bruins started the game pressuring the Lady Mustangs ball handler and picking up a press at the timeline to slow the Hidden Valley attack. This helped the Lady Bruins establish an early 4-2 lead half way through the first quarter of play.
The Lady Bruins struggled getting into their offense as the Hidden Valley defense pressured the Lady Bruins with a 2-3 press, holding Brookings-Harbor to just 5 points in the period, while the Lady Mustangs got four players in the scoring column to take a 5-8 lead into the second period of play.
In the second, coach Schofield turned up the heat, and the Lady Bruins closed off the paint and second shot opportunities as the Lady Bruins ran off of Lady Mustang missed shots and turnovers on a 10 point run early in the second period establishing a 15-11 lead at the mid point of the second period.
With the inside closed off by the Lady Bruin defense, Hidden Valley moved to outside the 3 point line to keep pace, hitting two 3 pointers to close the gap, and draw the score within 3 at the half.
Junior Zoe Carlson led all Bruins in the 3rd period after hitting 3 baskets and going 2 for 3 from the free throw line for 8 of the Lady Bruins 10 points in the period as the Lady Bruins defense held the Lady Mustangs to just 7 points in the period, again from two 3 pointers and a free throw.
Going into the 4th period with a 5 point 28-23 lead, the Lady Mustangs went straight into the key, and attacked the Lady Bruin interior defense and challenged the Lady Bruins under both baskets. The strategy sent 5 different Lady Mustangs to the line 11 times, going 7 for 11 as the Lady Bruins struggled to maintain their lead late.
However, Hidden Valley hit a couple crucial shots late in the period that the Lady Bruins failed to respond to, as the Lady Mustangs put up 18 points late in the game, erasing the Lady Bruins 5 point lead to take the win 35-40.
The Wild Coast Compass caught up with Coach Schofield after the game and he said “We a much better effort out of our kids tonight, and our defensive effort was good all night long. Offensively, we were inconsistent.” he said. “We had some real sloppy turnovers that led directly to points that we just weren’t able to overcome” he continued, “But we were much tougher tonight, and much stronger on the glass which kept us in the game.” he said. “But I was real proud of our girls tonight. That’s a really good team that we just went toe to toe with.”
The Lady Bruins start league play on the road this Friday, January 14th, when they travel to Medford to face off with Cascade Christian at 5:30pm.
