MORGANTOWN — The day will get off to an early start for the Trinity Christian girls’ basketball team, but it’s not about to let that slow the Warriors down.
The No. 6 Warriors (17-8) will take the court at the Charleston Coliseum and Civic Center at
9:30 a.m. today against No. 3 Magnolia (17-8) in the opening round of the Class A girls’ state tournament. Senior guard Reagan Sharp said the Warriors look to come out with a fast pace and set the tone early.
“Our plan is to dictate the pace of the game. The more we speed Magnolia up, the more we can turn them over, leading to more easy transition shots for us,” she said.
“The past two games, against Notre Dame and Moorefield, we have played fast and scrappy, and that has proven to be the best way for us to play in order to win.”
The Warriors previously met Magnolia on Jan. 19 in the regular season, dropping a 54-49 decision at the Boggs Roundball Classic at Tyler Consolidated.
“We really didn’t control the speed of the game,” Trinity coach Mike Baldy said. “Look for us to run a lot more this time around.”
To keep the intensity up to par, Sharp said the team will need to buy more heavily than ever into the mantra that has defined their season — “finish everything.”
“Our mentality for the year has been to finish everything we do. We plan on continuing in that mentality. We want to finish the season with a win.”
Baldy also called upon his key contributors to amp up the scoring effort against the Blue Eagles — leading scorers Leighton Croft and Sharp combined for just seven points in their last meeting, while the team converted just sixteen shots from the field
in total.
The game was one of eight this season in which the Warriors have failed to tally at least 50 points — in those contests, Trinity is 1-7.
“When you’re playing these types of teams, you need your best players to be the best on the court. Last time we played Magnolia, our top scorers didn’t score much. I trust they will score more this time around,” Baldy said.
This time around, Baldy compared Sharp’s mentality headed in to three-time NBA all-star Kemba Walker, and he expects the team’s success to hinge largely on her ability to lead the team on the biggest stage in the state.
“She’s in Kemba Walker mode right now — she’s not going to let anything slow her down,” he said.
Sharp, who averages 15.8 points per game to pace the Warriors, leads a group of six seniors that make their second consecutive state tournament appearance following a rocky start to their careers. With one final chance at bringing home the ultimate prize hanging the balance, she said to expect nothing less than maximum effort from herself and her teammates.
“We’re going out this week willing to leave it all on the court. We have nothing at all to lose, and we’ll never have this opportunity again,”
she said.
“We have to play our absolute hardest tomorrow and bring the effort and hustle we’ve had the past couple weeks and we can be a big threat.”
Live audio will be streamed at wvmetronews.com.
