BLACKSVILLE — As Trinity Christian senior Reagan Sharp bore down on the basket Thursday during the first half of a sectional rivalry game against Clay-Battelle, a pair of Cee-Bees defenders stepped up to slow the daunting point guard.
C-B knew well just how dangerous Sharp could be, as she had already earned a tough pair of 2-point buckets to spark the Warriors early.
The Cee-Bees wanted to force Sharp to earn her points the hard way — in doing so, they forgot about Kaylie Laskody. Sharp quickly dished a no-look, behind-the-back pass that landed squarely in her teammate’s hands, leaving her a wide-open look at the basket.
Such plays establish the threat Sharp poses — a seasoned floor general that knows how to distribute the ball and set up opportunities, but can also drive to the hoop and finish strong as a scorer. Her talents proved too much for the Cee-Bees to handle, as she tallied 22 points en route to a 60-36 Trinity victory.
“She’s had a great mindset this season of knowing when to drive and when to run the offense. She knows she has some really great players around her — we as a team are much better than we have been the past couple years,” coach Mike Baldy said. “Tonight, the open-court was hers, and she took it, and she scored.”
Sharp poses a dilemma for opposing squads — she reads the court like an expert from the point guard position, and if teams put too much pressure on her, she can easily swing the ball around the wing or look to the post. There has to be balance, though — all Sharp needs is the slightest angle, and she’ll forge a path to the basket.
The most dangerous thing about Sharp, according to Baldy, is how well she knows how to juggle the two responsibilities.
“She’s been making great decisions on when to slow it down and when to go after the basket. Because she’s been slowing it down — correctly — she hasn’t been scoring so much,” he said.
“She was right tonight just like she has been during the other four games, but it was a scoring night for her rather than a dishing out night.”
Sharp credits her ability to operate the offense to her teammate’s effort and hustle on the court. The harder her team runs the floor and the more effort they give off-the-ball, the easier she finds it to set up the team for success offensively.
“Our effort on defense was really great, so that helped us get a lot of transition buckets. When we have those players running down the floor and showing maximum effort, that opens up a lot of,” she said.
“When we get into transition, it open up the floor more and wears down the defense. When we wear them down, it gets them in lazier defense which allows us to get to the basket.”
C-B coach David Joyce saw the talent and depth the Warriors brought as too much for his younger, inexperienced team to handle.
“We came out this year with six kids out of nine that have never played high school ball before,” he said. “They were loaded with seven-deep or so that were talented ballplayers. With our numbers compared to his numbers and depth, it makes it real hard to compete. We don’t understand the pace of that level of game.”
Leighton Croft scored 16 points for the Warriors. Rylee Burnette score 18 and Alivia Ammons scored 10 for the Cee-Bees.
