Height makes a difference in the game of basketball. Don’t let anyone tell you it doesn’t. Teams with a heighth advantage usually win more games than not. Add quickness into the equation and it really does become an advantage. The Cleveland Lady Raiders had that exact formula in their Best of Preps win over the Baylor Lady Raiders by 39-27 in their 1 o’clock match-up on the CSAS campus Monday afternoon.
According to Baylor coach John Gibson, there was other factor that contributed to his team’s loss; “We got tired, that’s where the game turned.
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Baylor drew first blood and it looked like they might have the key to besting the team that beaten them earlier in a Hall of Fame game by 34 points. Behind the shooting of Megan Ausdram and Amber Howard, the Lady Red Raiders won the first quarter by 12-6. The second period saw Cleveland begin to work the ball inside the paint, using the heighth advantage of Cierra Anderson and Q’Shara Brown. Multiple put-backs on second and third shots on rebounds enabled the Raiders in blue to catch-up with 2:50 let in the half and then take the lead for good at 1:13 on Anderson’s two off a rebound at 16-15. Britney Latham’s lay-up closed out the scoring for Cleveland, as they took an 18-15 lead into the locker-room at the half.
Baylor made some obvious adjustments at the half. Coach Gibson related that, “We took it away from one of their big girls and managed to control the game until they managed to get her back into their game plan.” The big girl he was referring to was Anderson, who finished the game with 10 points. Also scoring a game high 10 for the Cleveland squad was Brown.
Megan Ausdran and Amber Howard combined for 15 of Baylor’s 27 points.
Cleveland went into a tight man-on-man coverage in the fourth quarter and that only added to the turnover problem for the Lady Red Raiders. This defense also caused Baylor to miss several good looks in the paint where Ashley Sims found herself open on more than several occasions.
Cleveland will play again at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, while Baylor slides into the consolation bracket game at 10 a.m. Tuesday morning. All games in the Best of Preps will be played at CSAS with the finals set for Wednesday evening.
SUMMARY
Score by Quarter:
CLEVELAND 6 12 6 15 39
BAYLOR 12 3 6 6 27
Individual Scorers:
CLEVELAND (2PT-3PT-FTA/FTM TP): Delay 1-0-2/2 4; Q’Shara Brown 5-0-0/0 10; Finnell; King 4-0-1/1 9; Latham 2-0-0/0 4; Cierra Anderson 5-0-2/0 10.
BAYLOR: Ausdram 2-0-8/4 8; Prater 1-0-0/0 2; Williams; Sims 0-1-2/1 4; Howard 2-0-5/3 7; Travis; Armstrong 1-0-0/0 2; Scruggs 0-1-0/0 3.
3 Point Goals: Sims, Scruggs (BAYLOR)
Total Fouls: Cleveland-14; Baylor-12
(You can contact Dennis Norwood at sportswriter56@comcast.net)