Coming off of two consecutive losses, McAuley girls basketball coach Mike Howard wanted to see his Warriors start fast against Thomas Jefferson on Thursday.
He got his wish.
McAuley scored the game’s first 15 points, riding the early momentum swing to a 63-28 win over the Cavaliers.
“I thought we played really well considering we haven’t had practice in two weeks,” Howard said. “For us to come out and play aggressive from the get-go … that says a lot about our character and work ethic.”
“Give a lot of credit to McAuley,” Thomas Jefferson coach Dan Rogers said. “They are well polished and are trying to get their rhythm going into districts as the No. 1 seed. They’re a good team and well coached. … We are getting better, and I think we are going to be scary in districts.”
SENIOR NIGHT
Thomas Jefferson honored three seniors in the matchup with the Warriors—Sydney Stamps, Sonia Carlson and Kayley Ball.
“Sydney Stamps and Sonia were here all four years, but Sonia didn’t get to play after the first couple of games because of a heart murmur,” Rogers said. “Sydney gives her best all the time. She is a great kid and we are going to miss her a lot. We are going to miss all of our seniors. Kayley Ball did a great job tonight. This is her first year with us, and she is very loyal and works hard. This is a great bunch of seniors.”
GAME ACTION
The Warriors opened the game with a hot start from the perimeter. Kennedy DeRuy drilled back-to-back 3-pointers from the corner to open the contest before a Lily Black inside score was followed up with a corner 3-ball from Kayleigh Teeter to push the lead to 11-0 through the first three minutes of action.
“It was very important,” Howard said of his team’s perimeter shooting early helping to open up the offense. “I knew coming into it that TJ was going to run a 1-3-1, and they run it pretty well. We had to take advantage of their weak spots, putting our shooters in a place to be successful. I thought we did a good job of moving the ball around and getting it to our shooters to get open looks.”
Teeter added a fast-break layup off a turnover before DeRuy scored on a give-and-go cut through the lane to close the 15-0 run. DeRuy finished with eight of the Warriors’ first 15 points.
“It was huge because she has been struggling the last few games,” Howard said of DeRuy’s start. “She really came out focused tonight. Over the break, she had been going and getting a lot of shots in to get her confidence up. You could tell tonight that she has been putting in the work.”
Alivia Beard got Thomas Jefferson on the scoreboard with a free throw at the 4:02 mark. McAuley led 21-5 by the end of the first period of play.
Thomas Jefferson found life offensively in the second quarter, equaling McAuley on the scoreboard 10-10 in the second period to keep the lead at 16 by the intermission, 31-15. Beard and Sarah Mueller each knocked down shots from the perimeter, while Stamps finished with four points in the quarter.
“We made better passes for each other,” Rogers said about his team’s offense in the second period. “We had a lot of bad turnovers (early), self-inflicted turnovers, but I thought we passed the ball better and made some adjustments. We have to handle the ball a lot better.”
McAuley pushed the lead to more than 20 points early in the second half with a 7-2 spurt to start the third quarter, pushing the game out of reach. Teeter knocked down a triple from the corner to start the scoring off before Stamps answered inside on the other end for the Cavaliers. DeRuy grabbed an offensive board for a putback basket, and Teeter added a runout on the break to make the score 38-17 with 4:20 left in the period.
SCORING LEADERS
Teeter finished with a game-high 26 points to lead McAuley, while DeRuy closed right behind with 23 points. Kloee Williamson added six.
Beard led Thomas Jefferson with 17 points, while Stamps closed out the contest with nine.
DISTRICT UPDATE
McAuley earned the top seed in the Class 1 District 7 tournament, and the Warriors will play the winner of No. 4 Rich hill and No. 5 Northeast Vernon County at 6 p.m. on Feb. 24.
Thomas Jefferson is the No. 7 seed and will travel to take on No. 2 Hume on Feb. 22.
