Finding an opening against the Holy Cross halfcourt trap isn’t an easy thing to do.
Indians coach Ted Arlinghaus said they’re forcing about 26 turnovers per contest this season and Saturday night was no different in the girls 9th Region All “A” Championship against Newport Central Catholic on The Hill.
The Indians forced over 30 turnovers on their way to a third straight regional All “A” title with a 68-49 victory over the Thoroughbreds. They bludgeoned the tournament field, winning their three games by a combined 105 points.
It started with defense.
“We hang our hat on defense,” Arlinghaus said. “At the beginning of the year, we kind of said that we’re gonna need our defense to lead to our offense. And that’s the way we’ve been playing all season and tonight was no exception.”
A trap here, a steal there and the Indians were off to the races on the other end. Layup after layup followed in transition as the spurts Holy Cross had in the contest were too much for NewCath to overcome.
“We knew what was coming. We’ve scouted and seen them play and knew what they were going to do,” Thoroughbreds coach Dan Albrinck said. “Everyone has to be in the right spot all the time, you make one floater pass, one time you’re not in position and they capitalize on it. We tried to do the same thing to them, they just capitalized on it much more tonight.”
What looked like a tight battle early with Holy Cross holding a 13-11 edge over five minutes into the game suddenly turned into a 25-11 end of first quarter lead.
NewCath was able to get within eight in the second after a 7-0 run, but it was a lengthy Indians run again, this one 13-0 to get them a 39-18 lead before going into the break with a 41-21 advantage.
Aniyah Carter was one of the key catalysts in transition with 13 first half points while Aumani Nelson put up 11 and Miyah Wimzie had eight.
“Defense made things a lot easier for us on offense. Getting baskets in transition is a lot easier than running our offense and getting into sets,” Nelson said. “Just need to keep playing hard, playing fast and playing together all the time.”
Another suffocating run started the second half as Holy Cross’ 10-0 spurt made it 51-21 and started to put them well on their way to Corbin Arena, the home of this year’s All “A” state tournament that starts on Jan. 24.
“Business trip. Take care of business and get a few wins in a row,” Wimzie said.
Wimzie was later named the tournament MVP as the award could have went to any of the starting five. That’s how dangerous the Indians are as they’ll look to defend their state title, opening up with the 7th Region champion on the 24th.
“Just need to keep focusing on all the little things. A lot of fundamental and individual drills that we do on the defensive side of the ball,” Arlinghaus said. “Defensively we’re light years ahead of where we were last year.”
Julia Hunt added nine points, grabbed plenty of rebounds and when she wasn’t blocking shots, was altering many others. Aaliyah Hayes added 11 points, 10 of them coming in the second half as four hit double figures, a point away from the starting five all reaching double-digit points.
NewCath was led by Caroline Eaglin’s 19 points, Jaylee Brannen and Madison McFarland chipping in 11 points apiece. Brannen had the hot hand early, her two first quarter 3-pointers getting them within 10-9. McFarland hit three 3-pointers in the second half while Eaglin scored eight of her game-high 19 in the fourth quarter.
“Ran into a couple of spurts where the next thing you look up and you’re down 10 or 20. We’ve got a lot of girls at this level that haven’t played in this high of intensity game,” Albrinck said. “This was a good experience for us. We’ve still got about 20 more games.”
The Thoroughbreds will return to action on Monday when they host Roger Bacon at 7 p.m.
Holy Cross returns to the floor on Tuesday when they host Holmes for a 35th District battle at 7:30 p.m.
INDIANS 68, THOROUGHBREDS 49
HOLY CROSS — 25-16-16-10 — 67
NEWPORT CENTRAL CATHOLIC — 11-10-9-18 — 48
Scoring
Holy Cross (67) – Nelson 17, Carter 15, Hayes 11, Wimzie 10, Hunt 9, Arlinghaus 3, Klaiss 2
NewCath (48) – Eaglin 19, Brannen 11, McFarland 11, Cole 3, Beck 2, Green 2
Game Stats
3-Pointers Made: Holy Cross 4, NewCath 7
Free Throws: Holy Cross 6/15, NewCath 11/15
Fouls: Holy Cross 14, NewCath 10
Records: Holy Cross 11-4, NewCath 9-4
