Stay Connected with YourSeason
Girls Basketball: Rich Central overpowers Bloom
Updated: January 12, 2012 10:11PM
To say Rich Central seniors Alex Stanford and Layne Murphy were in a better mood during Thursday’s Southland Athletic Conference game vs. visiting Bloom than they were the previous time the two teams played would be a giant understatement.
At halftime, they were singing a duet to Beyonce.
“Yeah, ‘We like to party’,” a smiling Stanford sang after the Olympians’ 62-48 victory. “We redeemed ourselves.”
Without question. Stanford tied teammate Chaz Duson for a team-high 14 points. Seven of Stanford’s markers were critical, thwarting a Bloom uprising in the third period. Ariel Sneed added 12 points as the No. 4 Olympians improved to 17-4, 6-0.
Bloom (10-8, 2-4) was led by Brenna Perry (16 points), Bria Gaines (13 points, 15 rebounds) and Katherine Strong (12 points).
In their first meeting, a 54-42 Rich Central victory Dec. 1, Stanford and Murphy collected five technical fouls between them while arguing referee calls. They and coach Bryan Craig were suspended for one game, via IHSA rules.
Thursday’s rematch saw no outbursts.
“We wanted to just keep calm, play the game,” Stanford said. “We didn’t want to let the refs get in our heads again.
“That was in the past. Time to let it go.”
The Olympians basically won the game in the first quarter.
Warren, a 6-foot-3 senior, was key in blocking three Bloom shots in the first four minutes. At the other end, Rich Central drove the basket with Duson converting dishes underneath.
It was 10-2 at the halfway mark of the period, 21-8 at the first break.
“I just saw the ball and jumped as high as I could to get the block,” Warren said.
The Blazing Trojans finally found an offensive rhythm in the second period, but it pretty much as give and take on the scoreboard. A late Central flurry, featuring a 3-pointer by Stanford and layups by Sneed and Ashley Blohm-Bivins, created a 37-20 halftime bulge.
Bloom made its biggest surge early it the third quarter, with a 10-2 run that got the deficit down to nine points. But Stanford stepped up with a pair of running jumpers and a three-point play to keep the Blazing Trojans from getting any closer.
“The first quarter killed us,” Bloom coach Ron Newquist said. “As hard as we worked all week in practice to prepare for what they were going to do, we didn’t come out prepared. We came out weak, we came out unfocused.
“We know they’re a high-flying team, and there were no shot fakes, no pass fakes. They blocked our shots, and our defense was poor, too. We decided to put it together in the second half, but it was a little too late.”
© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.
Cell Phone Alerts
Comments Click here to view or make a comment