by Malcolm Butler
When senior guard Reese Brown stole the ball and converted a layup to start the third quarter Tuesday night, it gave Choudrant a comfortable 36-19 lead over Class C power Hicks at CHS Gym.
Things look good for the Lady Aggies.
However, over the span of the next two minutes of action, Brown picked up her third and fourth personal fouls of the night, forcing head coach Brandy Roberson to pull her star from the game.
That’s when things go interesting.
Calvin (14-2), one of the Class C powers in girls basketball, turned up the pressure a few more notches with Brown on the bench, forcing numerous turnovers to close the third quarter on a 20-9 run and to cut the deficit to 45-39.
Brown remained on the bench to start the fourth quarter, but Roberson subbed her back in with exactly six minutes remaining to play and the Lady Aggies (12-3) leading 49-44.
She immediately made her presence felt.
Brown fed Kat Hernandez for an easy layup with 3:30 to play to give Choudrant a 53-46 lead and then scored six straight points over the next two minutes to push the advantage back to 59-50. By the time she fouled out with less than a minute to play, the Lady Aggies had the game in hand.
The Lady Aggies prevailed 61-50, picking up a big wins and some major power points.
Roberson said Brown was a big reason why.
“Reese has started since her freshman year, so she has been in a lot of games,” said Roberson. “She was our point guard (her first three years), but we pulled her off of that this year just to share some responsibility and not ask her to do everything. She came out really dodgy in the first quarter. I sat her down, and said, ‘Hey. We feed off of you, and if you can’t settle down then we aren’t going to win this game.’
“She got it going. She does such a good job of seeing the floor. Kat sees the floor well, but doesn’t quite have the experience of what is a good pass. Reese has been in a lot of close situations. If Reese isn’t playing well, then we aren’t playing well. That’s just how it goes. She calmed down and stepped up for us.”
The two teams battled back and forth through the first quarter.
A Hernandez layup followed by a Brown three-pointer gave Choudrant an early 5-0 advantage before Calvin answered with eight straight points. Calvin held a slim 12-10 lead after one.
Sadie Jones hit a short corner jumper to start the second quarter — two of the 12 points she netted in the frame — as the two teams went back and forth. However, with Calvin leading 16-15 with just over six minutes to play before halftime, the Lady Aggies began dominating on both ends of the floor.
Hernandez hit back-to-back buckets, the second coming off a nice feed from Brown, to start a decisive 19-3 run to close the first half. Choudrant shared the basketball throughout the stretch, time after time getting easy looks off of penetration and an assist.
The Lady Aggies led 34-19 at the break.
“They played a lot of that 1-3-1 and we were trying to run a two guard front,” said Roberson. “We moved to our five out, which is our man offense. We did a really good job of going to the open spot on the floor. We knew they would put a lot of trapping pressure on us up front, even in the 1-3-1. Whatever they do they trap.
“We told them the pressure would be up front and we just needed to dive to the basket, and we did. We figured it out. It clicked. I thought we moved the ball well and we saw the floor well in that stretch.”
With Brown sitting for an eight minute stretch over the final six minutes of the third quarter and the first two minutes of the fourth quarter, Calvin was able to make it a game. Amiyah Marshall was a big reason why as the physical combo-guard scored 10 of her team-high 17 points after halftime.
“(Marshall) had a great game for them,” said Roberson. “I knew she was a threat, but four of their top five really are. I thought after we settled down we did a better job. But they were rebounding so well. They wanted it. We called a timeout and told them we had to have every rebound.”
Hernandez led the Lady Aggies with 18 points while Brown added 14 points and Jones scored 14 points.
In addition to Marshall’s performance, Calvin was led by Alexa Collins with 12 and Jaleigha Hogby with 11 points.
