by Malcolm Butler
Cedar Creek head coach Katie Hall didn’t want her Lady Cougars scoreboard watching Tuesday night.
Nope.
She wanted her now 16-3 squad to focus on getting better. And that’s what the Lady Cougars did in a 69-8 win over Beekman Charter at The Brickhouse.
Taylor Martinez and Avery Ryan each scored 12 points as all 11 Creek players netted points in the one-sided victory over the Tigers (5-13).
“I wanted us to focus on the things we needed to work on and get better at and not focus on the scoreboard,” said Hall, who played her starters less than half of the game. “I felt like our energy was good. Some shots didn’t fall early, but we didn’t get frustrated about it.
“We weren’t sloppy. I didn’t want a lot of turnovers tonight. I wanted us to be crisp and clean and run things that we have been working on in practice.”
Creek led 4-2 with 5:30 to play in the first quarter when the Lady Cougars turned up the defensive full-court pressure and offensive execution, using a 27-0 run to close the quarter and build a 31-2 lead after eight minutes.
Martinez and Ryan combined for 17 of Creek’s 31-first quarter points.
It took just 90 seconds into the second quarter for the Lady Cougars to force a running clock the rest of the game as Mary Grace Hawkins, Ryan, and Alivia Lee each hit layups to push the advantage to 35-points.
Creek led 42-2 at the half.
“I wanted us to get better in our half court defense and I wanted to clean up our offense,” said Hall, whose team has won four straight and 11 of its last 12. “Sometimes we have been a little sporadic on our offensive sets and flow in games. We have been focusing on this in practice.”
Sitting back in a halfcourt defense, Cedar Creek outscored Beekman Charter 15-0 in the third quarter to push the advantage to 57-2 and eventually led 65-2 with on a pair of Britton Bennett free throws with 4:00 to play in the game.
Back-to-back three-pointers by Beekman Charter ended the 61-0 run by the Lady Cougars who coasted to the win.
Lee, Hawkins and Caroline James each scored eight points.
“I’m really pleased that everyone contributed,” said Hall.
The Lady Cougars previously scheduled game against Saline set for Friday has been canceled.
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Cedar Creek Scoring: FG(3)-FT=Total Points
Alivia Lee 4-0=8; Mary Grace Hawkins 3(1)-1=8; Britton Bennett 1-2=4; Caroline James 3-2=8; Mallory Smith 2-0=4; Taylor Martinez 5(1)-1=12; Zoey Venters 2-0=4; Kennedy Hall 1-0=2; Sophie Mariano 1-1=3; Avery Ryan 6-0=12; Arlyn Boyet 2-0=4. Totals: 30(2)-7=69
Scoring by Quarters
Beekman Charter (Record 5-13): 2-0-0-6=8
Cedar Creek (Record 16-3): 31-11-15-12=69
