Playing their first full game without injured point guard Savannah Washington, the Red Bank girls basketball team had no problems with Polk County in their region quarterfinal matchup on Friday night.
Junior Raijeria Bell picked up the slack offensively, scoring 24 points, as the host Lady Lions advanced to the semifinal round with a 53-36 victory over the Lady Wildcats. Arteya Scott also scored 12 and Bailey Lee chipped in nine as Red Bank outscored Polk County 36-14 in the paint.
“Raijeria Bell and Arteya Scott have stepped up tremendously (in Washington’s absence),” said Red Bank coach Bailey McGinnis.
“Raijeria scored 24 points in the district championship against Signal Mountain (the game Washington was injured), and then again tonight. Savannah had the ball in her hands 80 percent of the time, so that’s the biggest difference. All three of them are very tight friends, so it has been really neat to see them pick her up when she went down.”
“Nobody is going to replace Savannah obviously, but it gives a lot of these other players like Ashley Ware, Tatyana Crafton, Aiyana Loher and Shannon Ledford the opportunity to show me what they’ve got. It’s been cool to see them step up.”
Red Bank (27-5) appeared a little shaky out of the gate offensively, scoring just three points in the first 3:30 of the game as Polk County (11-14) took an early 6-3 lead on 3-pointers by Callie Brewer and Makayla Howard. Brewer was the only Lady Wildcat in double figures with 15 points.
It didn’t take long for the Lady Lions to find their rhythm, however, using their size advantage to score the final 12 points of the first quarter on their way to a 15-6 advantage through a period.
“Watching film on Polk we knew we had the size advantage,” McGinnis said. “We just know that we have to use what we do have as our advantage, and right now that’s size.”
Bell and Lee were dominant inside in the second quarter, both in the post and on the offensive glass. Lee opened up Red Bank’s second-quarter scoring with a bucket down low on a feed from Loher, and drew the foul. The converted free throw extended the Lady Lions’ lead to 11.
After the Lady Wildcats cut their deficit to six with 2:53 remaining in the quarter on a basket by Courtney Farr, Red Bank hit the offensive glass for the final three minutes. Offensive rebounds by Bell, Lee, and Scott each led to buckets to close out the half, and the Lady Lions went into the locker room up 28-14.
It was more of the same in the third quarter, where the home team outscored Polk County 16-11, with every made basket coming from inside except a 3-pointer by Bell. In fact, that was one of only three shots made outside the painted area during the first three quarters.
Up by 19 with eight minutes to play, Bell effectively put the game away in the opening minutes of the final quarter, scoring five points as her team cruised to victory.
“I was really nervous about how we were going to respond, with it kind of being point guard by committee, but they handled it well. At this point in the season, a lot of teams are hurt or sick; there’s always adversity. It’s just a matter of how you respond. It was a good team effort tonight, and I’m really proud of them.”
Red Bank will take on McMinn Central, who defeated Tyner 55-27, next Monday night at 7:30 at East Ridge High School.
GAME SUMMARY
POLK COUNTY 6 8 11 11 -- 36
RED BANK 15 13 16 9 -- 53
POLK COUTY (36) – Callie Brewer 15, Cox 5, Howard 5, Farr 4, Maxwell 3, Long 3, Harden 1, Lowe, Clark, M. Akin, K. Akin, Hardin.
RED BANK (53) – Rajeria Bell 24, Arteya Scott 12, Lee 9, Loher 2, Crafton 2, Ware 2, Ledford 2, Heathington.
3-POINT GOALS: Polk County 4 (Brewer 2, Cox, Howard); Red Bank 1 (Bell).
RECORDS: Red Bank 27-5; Polk County 11-14.
(Email Kevin Llewallyn at kevin.llewallyn@gmail.com)