by Malcolm Butler
Cedar Creek Katie Hall let the video do the talking.
Hall said she sat down with her Lady Cougars team Monday and showed clips of action from the past few games, all Cedar Creek losses.
She showed some good. But she showed plenty of not so good.
Evidently, it worked.
Avery Ryan scored 21 points, Mary Grace Hawkins netted 17 and Caroline James added 12 as Cedar Creek (2-4) jumped out to an early lead and never looked back in a 71-38 victory over Minden Monday night at The Brickhouse.
“We are going to get more comfortable with these roles,” said Hall. “Our gameplan was to stay in transition. We thought we got away from that these past few games, so we really emphasized that tonight. We wanted to push the pace and not all Minden’s defense to get set up.”
With the Crimson Tide utilizing a full-court press against what has been a turnover prone Lady Cougars team thus far, Cedar Creek capitalized. James, Alivia Lee and Hawkins each scored in the opening two minutes against the press as the Cougars surged out to a 6-0 lead.
Following Minden’s first field goal of the night, Hawkins added back-to-back buckets in transition and a minute later a 15-footer to push the lead to 14-4. Hawkins scored eight of her 17 points in the opening quarter.
While the Lady Cougars were breaking Minden’s press time after time, Cedar Creek was also utilizing some full court pressure of its own.
“We weren’t creating any turnovers with our halfcourt defense,” said Hall. “We were getting stagnant and not playing with a lot of energy. And we got tired. We aren’t in the fullcourt pressing shape yet. So we stayed in it tonight to work on our stamina.”
Creek led 35-16 at halftime after James and Ryan combined to score 18 of the Lady Cougars 21 points in the second quarter.
Ryan continued her scoring onslaught in the third quarter, hitting on four more field goals while Lee added a couple of more buckets. Creek led 50-33 at the end of three.
Hall used her bench in the fourth quarter as Arlyn Boyett (6 points), Sophie Mariano (3 points), and Britton Bennett (6 points) combined for 15 of the Lady Cougars 21 points.
“We need to get more players involved,” said Hall. “We need to develop our bench. If we are going to press more, then we are going to need to rely on more players. That’s our mindset.”
Cedar Creek will compete in the Quitman Tournament starting Thursday with a game against Pitkin.
