CHARLESTON — You may or may not believe in luck, but you’d be hard-pressed not to see good fortune in Trinity Christian’s semifinal draw at the state tournament.
The No. 6 Warriors (18-8) had no choice in their seeding for the tournament, but likely found themselves smiling when they realized they’d earned a rematch with No. 2 Parkersburg Catholic at 9:30 a.m. Friday — the Warriors handed the Crusaders (23-1) their only loss this season, prevailing 64-62 on Dec. 22.
“Last time, we knocked down some shots, and we had some good players that matched up with them nicely. They have nice guards, and we have nice guards,” Trinity coach Mike Baldy said.
“I do think our forwards are significantly better than theirs, and I would like to hope our forwards will be a real difference maker in the game.”
While the Warriors are careful not to get cocky ahead of the matchup, confidence appears to be high in the locker room.
“It gives us some confidence, because we know we’ve done it before. We don’t want to be overconfident; they are a really good team, and they’re going to come out strong. We have to be ready to play our best,” sophomore Jaclyn Smith said.
Baldy looks for a similar defensive effort to the team’s 65-57 opening-round win against No. 3 Magnolia on Wednesday, during which they forced 24 turnovers resulting in 31 points. Baldy believes if his team can win the turnover battle that it should negate Catholic’s dangerous transition offense.
“We need to slow them down in the open court. They like to make full court passes — when they get the ball, they are five girls really running the floor, and we don’t want them to score on the fastbreaks,” he said.
Smith’s charge slows Cabral production
It’s funny how one play can alter the course of a game.
Jaclyn Smith was just looking to slow Magnolia sophomore Madi Winters, who tallied a game-high 45 points against the Warriors on Wednesday.
Blue Eagles sharpshooter Aquera Cabral was perched in the weakside corner, and Smith slid behind Winters in help defense to defend against the lob. Winters went up strong, and Smith drew a charge.
The Blue Eagles proceeded to move Cabral up the wing to pull Smith away from the post, where she was subsequently held scoreless by a trio of Warriors.
“Really, it gave us a boost a confidence, because it showed us that we were controlling the pace of the game,” Smith said. “They had to adjust their gameplan to make it work.”
