The Centralia girls wanted their defense on Jan. 11 to be “tenacious.”
The Class 3 No. 2 Lady Panthers shut out Class 5 No. 3 MICDS in the second quarter and allowed 27 percent shooting from …
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The Centralia girls wanted their defense on Jan. 11 to be “tenacious.”
The Class 3 No. 2 Lady Panthers shut out Class 5 No. 3 MICDS in the second quarter and allowed 27 percent shooting from the floor to win 67-36 in the Sophie Cunningham Classic at Columbia College. Ryenn Gordon earned MVP honors after finishing with a career-high 33 points and tallying four steals.
This is the third season Centralia (12-1) has played in the Sophie Cunningham Classic but is the first time it has won at the three-day event. Head coach Megan Brinkmann remembers Gordon saying, “We got to win!” and she said the Lady Panthers did all they could to make sure that happened. Brinkmann said the team had two days to prepare for the game and “work on ourselves.”
“Tenacious on defense is what we talked about,” Brinkmann said. “We’re getting better at who we need to be and where we’re trying to go.”
MICDS (10-3) did manage to stay close in the first quarter 16-10, and all-stater Jordyn Haywood scored eight of her 22 points in the quarter. Centralia went on a 20-0 to take a 36-10 halftime lead.
On multiple occasions, MICDS was called for traveling as it tried to gain any separation from Centralia defenders. The Lady Panthers didn’t allow the space.
“That’s who I want us to be,” Brinkmann said. “At times, we can be more aggressive than what we are without fouling. We knew we had to stop (Haywood), (Riha Obinegbo) and (Kennedy Newman). Those were the big three. After that, we needed to help and scramble.”
Gordon said Haywood was a big focus on defense because she can do many things with the ball. She believes this performance “trumps” the team’s past two losses at the Sophie Classic.
“It was just shrinking the court so she doesn’t have as much room to do everything,” Gordon said. “We guarded everybody else straight up. If one person scores 30 and we score 60, that will be OK.”
Speaking of scoring 30 points, Gordon scored more than 30 points and said she did one better than her previous career-high against Father Tolton last season. The Lady Panthers shot 49 percent from the floor, with Gordon taking plenty of high-percentage shots and posting 12 points in the first quarter.
“I had a lot of open looks in the paint,” Gordon said. “They were guarding the three pretty well so getting in there and snaking my way through people to get to the basket was definitely working for me.”
Brinkmann said it was “a quiet 33” for Gordon considering her point guard excelled at what she normally does for the team, which is pushing the ball, hitting her shots and finding her teammates, to gradually reach a career-high.
The Centralia lead was built gradually early in the game as the Lady Panthers crashed the boards to put back offensive rebounds. Brinkmann said this helped Centralia “set the tone early.”
“The shot goes up, and you got to go board,” Brinkmann said. “Just make the game easy. Get some offensive rebounds, get to the free throw line and put pressure on them to foul.”
Braylin Brunkhorst, who recently scored her 1,500th career point in a 62-32 win against Harrisburg on Jan. 6 at home, finished with eight points, 10 rebounds and four assists. Brooklyn Hardin had seven points.
Ealynne Bostick followed Gordon in scoring with 12 points, scoring nine points in the second half to keep the margin high, and had six rebounds for a “more full game” that Brinkmann believes she can have more frequently.
“She finished some shots in transition,” Brinkmann said. “She has been struggling so I’m proud of her for sticking with it. She’s hit some threes that I think she’s been struggling with.”
Tenacious is a word that Centralia wants to keep associating with its team, but Brinkmann said the Lady Panthers should not have the word “content” in mind.
“I hope we’re confident, but I hope we’re not content,” Brinkmann said. “There’s always things we need to work on, and a lot of little things we need to get better at.”
