MORGANTOWN — Rachel Rosen used to get nervous in the paint. Now, she just takes care of business.
The Trinity Christian center took control underneath Thursday as the Warriors hosted Moorefield in the Class A Region II championship. She tallied 10 rebounds and seven points to help lead the Warriors to a 66-44 win. She held Moorefield center Gianna Fair to just two points and one rebound in the performance.
“Their big girl is a really good player. Rachel, a few years ago, I don’t want to say — she was intimidated, but she had that ‘wow’ factor that this girl is as big as me,” Trinity coach Mike Baldy said.
“Since then, she’s been so good against their big, and it makes me so proud the way she played tonight.”
For a player that has become used to towering over most opponents, drawing matchups of similar physical stature can sometimes be a difficult adjustment for Rosen, but she has learned to train for and adapt to such scenarios.
“It definitely can be more intimidating running into girls who are closer to my size, but I try to do my best to just put what I have worked on to the test and to use it in games,” Rosen said.
“I generally try to mind myself more; I try to be more mindful of boxing out and more mindful of staying out of foul trouble. I know it’s hard for other girls on my team to match up with girls that tall.”
Rosen led an aggressive team performance on the glass for Trinity — eight Warriors pulled down boards, with five girls tallying five or more as they outrebounded the Yellowjackets 38-22. According to Baldy, crashing the glass was a focal point of the team’s strategy entering the game.
“When we went and saw Moorefield play Tucker last Sunday, we noticed they were controlling the glass. We wanted to mimic that,” he said. “We knew if we were going to come in here and beat them, we couldn’t allow them to shoot three or four times each possession and I think we did a nice job of that.”
The Warriors started sluggish, failing to convert from the field for over the first three minutes of action. The momentum swung when a pair of Moorefield turnovers turned into 3-point baskets for Trinity, sparking a 14-0 run to close the first quarter. The Yellowjackets failed to come within ten points of the lead for the rest of the game.
“We just executed. I knew we were going to get the effort, but I didn’t know if we were going to get the execution. But we hit the back door cuts, we hit every one of our four-man plays — as a coach, you have to love that,” Baldy said.
Reagan Sharp paced the scoring effort for the Warriors with 17 points and also added eight assists and six rebounds. Leighton Croft added 15 points and five rebounds, and Kaylie Laskody tallied 14 points and five boards. The Warriors advance to the state tournament at the Charleston Civic Center for the second-straight year with the win.
They enter as the No. 6 seed, and will face No. 3 Magnolia at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.
