Hosts of the tournament, the Goodrich Hornets defeated the Shepherd J.V. 36-28 in a game that was close until a few minutes to go.
Goodrich raced up to a 10-point advantage in the first quarter, but some subpar ball handling and careless passes kept them from making it more. That would matter later.
The Hornets held the young Pirates to just 10 points in the first half, but Shepherd kept fighting. Many points would come from turnovers, as Goodrich mistakes kept their opponent in the game.
Shepherd tied the game at 19 late in the third quarter, but Goodrich had another run. After going winless last season, the Hornets are now 5-4.
“They are a great young team,” Goodrich coach Cordell Carter set of the Shepherd group. “They just couldn’t make shots. If they would have made shots, it would have been extra interesting, because we couldn’t make shots. I told our guys that points are at a premium, but you’re going to win this game on defense. That’s what happened, and we turned them over when we needed to turn them over the most.”
Saul Guzman led the Hornets with nine points, while Alan Earnest had seven and Zatavius Bowens had six.
“Right there at the end, we hit a three and made a layup and pushed it up to 10,” Carter said. “That is what we needed. We got stops when we needed to have stops. This was a great steppingstone, because the old Goodrich – we would have lost. This game would have been over by halftime, but this team is fighting. We are putting together wins, they are learning how to win, and tonight they learned how to win when it wasn’t going good on the offensive side of the ball.”
Goodrich girls basketball secured a big halftime lead, and cruised to a 46-15 win over the Cleveland J.V. in the first round of their tournament Thursday.
Goodrich got out to a quick start and played good defense in the first quarter, not allowing a point. Aaliyah Wright was a force in the middle for the Lady Hornets, deterring shots underneath the rim and rebounding on both ends. By halftime, the home team had a 30-5 buffer.
Wright was also Goodrich’s leading scorer with 14 points. Bra’Niyah Wyatt was active in the first half, scoring all of her 11 points in two quarters. Freshman Tamia Figgs had seven, and Tanyreauna Criswell and Liseidy Balbuena had a half dozen each.
“I feel like they shared the ball more today,” Goodrich coach Khadijah Carter said. “They were a little more aggressive and they played good defense. The 1-2-2 that we ran helped, but we kept leaving the back side open a little bit. We also need to stop leaving the middle open, but overall, we did pretty good. They were sharing the ball and that is what I liked about today. We still need to rebound a little bit more and box out and make the open shots. We need to drive because it is open.”
Corrigan-Camden won the rebounding battle, committed fewer turnovers, and took advantage of the Leggett defense consistently on their way to a 84-36 win. The Bulldogs jumped into passing lanes and turned many of those into uncontested baskets in the victory.
“We didn’t play up to our capabilities. We’re not hustling, not rebounding, not boxing out, and not playing defense,” Leggett coach Ra’Shod Jefferson said. “We are playing selfish. We are afraid of contact, and we are afraid to go inside. We’ve got a lot of work to do, and we’ve got a lot of regrouping to do. They get down and let teams get in their head.”
The Bulldogs spread their points over many players, with Braylon Levy and Aiden Heredia scoring 11, while Paden Walker and Tahj Thomas each had 10. For the Pirates, Mason Grimm had 17 and Iasiah Henderson had 11.
The win Thursday brought the Bulldogs’ record to .500 for the season.
“We played well, but I want to see it against some better teams,” Corrigan-Camden coach Josh Robertson said. “There is nothing against Leggett, they practice just like we do, but I want to see it when we play better opponents. Today puts us at 4-4. We need to get better in transition defense and transition offense. They did it today, but that’s what we have been focusing on in practice recently. We’re trying to get better at it.”
Turnovers and a low shooting percentage plagued the Corrigan-Camden girls in their opening-round game versus Class 4A Shepherd, a 50-13 loss. The Lady Pirates supplied enough defense to keep the Lady Dogs at a distance. Shepherd went up in the first quarter 11-5 and never looked back.
“There were too many turnovers,” Corrigan-Camden coach Jack Arneson said. “This is our best game as far as intensity and hustle goes. That was something that we had struggled with before in the last game.”
The Lady Bulldogs are 0-6 to start the season. The team has turned over most of the roster and has no seniors. There is hope on the way, as the seventh graders are currently undefeated.
Jenna Robbins scored 11 for Corrigan, and Destiny McQueen had two.
“It is mostly just one team; we don’t have a J.V. team,” Arneson said. “We’ve got a lot of youngsters with no seniors on the team. We had two last year, so we are very young again. We’re just going to keep fighting in tournament season and hope as we get to district that we can just compete with some of those better teams. It is pretty tough, with Chireno, West Sabine, San Augustine, Woden and Shelbyville. All five of those are pretty tough.”
