Stories

Back at it again: Miller girls state title defense continues

Photo by Bart Isley

The 2016-2017 campaign for Miller was slated to be a rebuild. As it turns out, you can mount a VISAA Division 2 title defense and rebuild at the same time if you’re the Mavericks. Behind great outside shooting in the first half and then a dominant performance in the paint from Hannah Woodard in the second half, Miller rolled past Highland in the state quarterfinals, 60-41.

 

“We’re playing pretty decent basketball,” said Mavericks coach James Braxton. “When you get to this level, teams are going to play you hard and make shots. You just have to answer the storm and that’s what we did. We said if we could get out of here with a 2-point win we’d take it but winning like we did is always nice.”

 

The Mavericks got six first half three pointers, including a trio from senior guard Secret Bryant. As such, Miller took a 17-7 lead in the first quarter before heading into the break up 26-20. Highland’s Ashten Eicher’s outside shooting allowed the visitors to close the gap a bit near halftime, but the game changed in the second half with Miller finding success down low.

 

“It was just a change in pace,” Bryant said. “I think we were rushing our shots a bit in the first half. I think we were excited. But we got ourselves calmed down and came out in the second half, started making out shots thanks to easy passes.”

 

With Bryant still knocking shots down from outside, Hannah Woodard scored eight points in the third quarter to keep the Mavericks in step with Highland. Heading to the fourth, it was a 39-33 game, but Miller blew the game open in the fourth with more Woodard and Bryant, and much of that at the free throw line where the two hit seven of their time attempts at the charity stripe. By outscoring Highland 21-8, the Mavericks were able to coast to an easy victory.

 

“In the second half we got it to (Woodard) and she’s our best scorer inside,” Braxton said. “It definitely helped because I think all our shots in the first half were from outside.”

 

On the night, Bryant had 15 points paced by four treys while Woodard also finished with 15, all of them coming in the second half. Aby Morrill had nine points, all of them coming from beyond the arc. Yasmine Tyler had eight points. Hannah Coles finished with seven.

 

The second-seeded Mavericks will play the third seed in Norfolk Christian in the final four at Steward on Friday at 8:30 p.m.

 

“We’re coming together,” Braxton said. “We won a conference championship last week and hopefully that leads us ahead to trying to win a state championship again.”

Comments

comments