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Blan girls fall to unbeaten CHCA

Sunday, 10 February 2008

By SHAWN ROBINSON

Sports Writer

WILMINGTON – Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy (20-0) came into its Division III girls sectional tournament showdown with Blanchester (9-12) Saturday at Wilmington Middle School ranked 8th (Associated Press) in the state. The Eagles also were two to three inches taller at most positions than a Blanchester squad that started three freshmen.

Tori (left) and Julia Richardson

CHCA’s inside-outside attack of Courtney Kust and 6-3 Erin McGuire combined for 31 points in a 56-24 rout of the Wildcats.

Kust hit three-pointers on her way to a game-high 18 points. McGuire added 13. Kust also pulled down seven rebounds, had three steals and two blocks. McGuire had nine rebounds and two blocks.

“We were outsized by a lot and they had more experienced players. You can’t simulate their size (in practice),” Blanchester head coach Jason Gray said. “Our team has been inexperienced all year. But, after you play a while, you don’t think about being freshmen anymore. The other night (in the tournament opener) there may have been some nerves. Today, we just were outphysicaled.”

The Eagles outrebounded the Wildcats 41-22, unofficially.

Tori (7) and Julia (5) Richardson combined for half of Blanchester’s points.

No. 3-seed CHCA advances to play second-seeded and No. 6 (Associated Press) Middletown Madison (21-0) at 6 p.m. Thursday at Wilmington Middle School for a sectional championship.

“We had a box-and-one on Kust in the first quarter,” Gray said. “They did a nice job with their other girls hitting shots. They had a nice plan to attack the box-and-one.”

The Wildcats held Kust without a field goal in the first quarter. However, the Eagles got five points from Taylor Dickson and two more from McGuire on their way to an 11-2 first-quarter lead. Jennifer Rineair scored Blanchester’s only field goal of the quarter.

Dickson and McGuire teamed up to score the first 10 points of the second quarter. Blanchester got two free throws from Julia Richardson to stop the Eagles’ run 4:24 before the intermission.

Blanchester scored the final five points of the second period and was down just 24-9 at halftime.

“Defensively, in the first half, I thought we played well,” Gray said. “We didn’t hit any shots. They played with good defensive pressure and made it difficult to score.”

Blanchester shot 3-of-19 from the field in the first half. It only had four offensive rebounds.

The Wildcats struck first in the second half but wouldn’t score again for six minutes. Julia Richardson finally stopped CHCA’s 19-0 run with a three-pointer.

Kust scored the first seven points of the run. She put back a teammate’s miss, buried a three and took a steal the distance. She hit another bomb in the period to help send the Eagles into the final stanza with a 46-18 lead.

SUMMARY

BLAN – 2 7 9 6 – 24

CHCA – 11 13 22 10 – 56

BLAN (24) – Watkins 0-0-0, Weisflock 0-2-2, T. Richardson 3-0-7, Wisniewski 0-1-1, Rineair 2-2-6, J. Richardson 1-2-5, Brooks 1-0-2, McCollister 0-0-0, Kuhnell 0-0-0, Zike 0-1-1, Whitt 0-0-0. TOTALS 7-8-24. 3-pointers – 2 (J. Richardson, T. Richardson). FTM-FTA n/a.

CHCA (56) – Lambert 0-0-0, Grevey 1-0-3, Kust 7-1-18, McGuire 6-1-13, Arrington 2-0-5, Candee 0-0-0, Hott 2-0-4, Hall 1-0-2, Dixon 4-3-11. TOTALS 23-5-56. 3-pointers – 5 (Kust 3, Grevey, Arrington). FTM-FTA n/a.