by Malcolm Butler
Katie Hall likes to stay positive when talking about her team.
Even when the performance doesn’t necessarily deserve it.
So it’s no surprise that the second-year Lady Cougars coach simply shook her head and said, “I am going to agree with you and leave it at that” when asked if she thought her team underperformed, especially in the first half of Tuesday night’s 59-24 playoff win over No. 15 seed St. Frederick at The Brickhouse.
However, Hall still tried to find the positives in a very uncharacteristic performance against a scrappy, yet undermanned, Lady Warriors team.
“Our girls have been ready,” said Hall. “We spent several days preparing for this (game) and so they were really amped up. I felt like he energy was there. I am not sure if there were nerves. We had some shots that didn’t go in early, but our defensive effort was good.”
Cedar Creek (27-3) won its 15th straight game and advanced to a quarterfinal match-up against No. 7 seed Hamilton Christian, a 73-23 winner over St. Martin’s Episcopal in its second round playoff game.
“We are going to have to play a lot better than we did tonight,” said Hall in reference to the quarterfinal match-up which is set for Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at The Brickhouse.
The Lady Cougars have won with a disciplined, tough-nosed, aggressive style this season; all the while playing with a passion and enjoyment for the game.
On Tuesday night, they won despite not playing in that same manner for the vast majority of the game.
Missed layups. Air ball three-pointers. Missed defensive assignments. Too many turnovers.
All of these things led to a slim 12-8 advantage at the end of the opening quarter of play. It trickled into the second quarter when Hall finally called a timeout with 3:16 remaining before the half and the Lady Cougars leading just 20-13.
That’s when the usually mild-mannered Hall had her say with her team gathered around her.
It helped.
The Lady Cougars began executing better on both ends of the floor and slowly began to build a double digit halftime lead (29-16).
Part of the equation was slowing down St. Fred guard Ashlyn Owen, who scored 14 of the Lady Warriors 16 points in the first half despite the fact Cedar Creek was face guarding her much of the opening two quarters.
“We knew (Odom) was their key player, and she scored a lot of points early,” said Hall. “I was like, ‘Hello. Somebody has to rotate off if we get into a rotation defensively in transition. We have to find her, and I felt like we didn’t do a good job of that early.”
The Lady Cougars did that in the second half, limiting St. Fred’s to a total of eight points after halftime, including only three made frees throws by Odom, as they pulled away for the 35-point win.
“We just had to remember what our game plan was and that’s limit (Odom’s) touches,” said Hall.
The Warriors also had their own gameplan to try to slow down junior forward Avery Ryan. St. Fred played a zone throughout the game putting two and sometimes three players on Ryan even when she didn’t have the basketball.
It worked for a while, but the Lady Cougars inside force continued to work and ended the night with 16 points and a season-high 17 rebounds.
“She worked so hard tonight,” said Hall. “She worked offensively. She worked defensively. She didn’t get the ball, but kept reposting. She worked and she rebounded so well. She is pretty special when she wants the ball. She will go get it.
“And it opens up our shooters on the perimeter when she does things like that. She was dialed in.”
Ryan wasn’t the only Lady Cougar who had a solid night. Junior point guard Taylor Martinez scored 12 points, including seven in the first half when Creek was struggling to find some offense.
“She has been putting in so much work outside of practice,” said Hall. “I was very pleased with her tonight. Taking on the point guard role is hard, day in and day out. We ask so much of her and it’s a thankless job. I was glad to see the ball go in for her tonight.”
The Lady Cougars will now turn their attention to Hamilton Christian (15-9), a team that has won 11 of its last 13 contests.
“Hamilton Christian is a good team,” said Hall. “I would not look at them as a No. 7 seed. They are young, but they are athletic and they are very capable of coming in here and giving us a lot of trouble.”
