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Girls Basketbal: Quick start carries Rosary past Plano
Updated: January 4, 2012 11:34PM
Coming off a disastrous loss to Neuqua Valley a week ago, a game which included a season-ending knee injury to guard Madison Richmond, Rosary’s girls basketball team needed quick start Wednesday against Plano.
The Royals got just that.
Adjusting to the loss of Richmond and shaking off the rust of the holiday break, Rosary streaked to an 18-point lead early in the second quarter and went on to earn a 55-40 nonconference win.
“We’ve got kids playing some new spots and trying some things out,” Rosary coach Dave Beebe said. “I was very happy. I thought we played well offensively. I thought we looked for each other. We were playing as a team.”
That was certainly the case early on for the Royals (6-10). They jumped out to a 27-9 lead at Plano (8-9), thanks in large part to 10 points apiece in the first half from Taylor Gibson and Maddie Kombrink. They turned the ball over only one time in the first quarter in cruising to the big lead.
“I feel like we really came out with a lot of intensity,” Kombrink said. “I think we worked really hard in practice and it paid off in the game.”
Kombrink was a big bright spot in the win for Rosary. She led the team with 18 points and nine rebounds.
“I was really happy with Maddie,” Beebe said. “She really stepped up. She’s coming along. She has nights like tonight where if she’s focused and on, I think she’s one of the better post players in the area.”
Kombrink’s numbers are all the more impressive considering her opponent in the post, Plano’s Clarissa Martinez. Martinez helped the Reapers to a 54-32 rebounding edge by hauling down 18 boards, 13 off the offensive glass, to go with 11 points and six blocked shots.
That helped the Reapers stay in the game in the second half, though the closest they got to Rosary was 11 points with 4:54 left in the fourth quarter before the Royals righted the ship.
“She has been playing much better the past three or four games,” Plano coach Mario Serra said of Martinez. “She went through a little stretch where she wasn’t quite as aggressive, but she’s starting to get that back again. We need that. She takes up so much space in there.”
Gibson added 12 points for Rosary in the win.
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