Millbrook Girls Knock Down Eight 3-Pts To Pull Away From James Wood 69-53

Posted: January 11, 2014
By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI

WINCHESTER — Maybe the Millbrook girls’ basketball team pulled the trigger on a few too many 3-pointers in the third quarter, but at least the Pioneers weren’t shy about taking them in the second.

Faced with a 3-2 zone defense from James Wood, Millbrook broke open a one-point game with a 4-for-6 shooting performance from beyond the arc in the second period to open up a 12-point halftime lead.

The Pioneers maintained an advantage of at least nine points over the remainder of the game and went on to a 69-53 victory over James Wood Friday night at the Colonels’ Shirley Gymnasium.

Lauren Reed (4 of 9 on 3-pointers, 26 points) and Brenna Cook (3 of 7 on 3’s, 23 points, 12 rebounds, two steals) did most of the damage from beyond the arc for Millbrook (11-2, 2-0 Northwestern District), which made 8 of 19 3’s (42.1 percent). The Pioneers came in hitting 32.4 percent of their 3’s this season.

“They’re definitely probably the toughest team we’ve had to defend,” said James Wood coach Krista Cristes, whose team lost for just the second time this year and is now 7-2 overall and 0-1 in the Northwestern. “Anytime you have a team that has two players who can shoot from the outside like that, it’s going to be hard to defend no matter who you play.”

Millbrook hit two 3-pointers in the first quarter to take a 15-10 lead, but the Pioneers lead was whittled to 17-16 after James Wood sophomore guard Keiana Brooks (14 points) turned one of her eight steals into a layup on the other end to cut the Pioneers’ lead to 17-16 with 6:32 left.

After Cook hit two free throws at the 5:41 mark, the rest of the offense in Millbrook’s 14-2 run consisted entirely of its marksmanship from outside. Sophomore Joneisha Cain hit the first 3, then one from Cook and two from Reed — the last of which came with 2:11 left in the second quarter — made it 31-18 and forced the Colonels out of their zone.

“Our 3-point shooting was big,” said Cain (13 points, five rebounds), who knocked down the first of those second quarter 3’s with 5:13 to go to put Millbrook up 22-16. “Because then they had to go to man, and they couldn’t really stop us in man either.”

In the second half, Millbrook was frequently able to break through James Wood’s defense by putting the ball on the floor and getting to the basket for close-range shots and layups. Basically, the Pioneers showed they could score in multiple ways.

“It was a great all-around game, and we had great energy the whole game,” Reed said.

Millbrook coach Kevin Barr said he’ll definitely take the win, but he felt the Pioneers were fortunate to not see their lead trimmed to closer than nine points in the second half.

For starters, he felt James Wood (20 of 56 from the floor for 35.7 percent) is capable of shooting better than it did, and Barr was disappointed that Millbrook let the Colonels get some open looks at the basket halfway through the fourth quarter, when its lead was cut to 59-47.

Barr also thought the Pioneers didn’t need to shoot as many 3-pointers as they did in the third quarter (Millbrook hit 2 of 7 in that period) and would have been better served taking more time off the clock during the possessions in which James Wood was in zone.

“We don’t have patience,” Barr said. “That’s my fault for not calling timeout and making them hold the ball until they came to man.

“But any district win is a great win. We had an emotional win Wednesday [over Sherando], and I was kind of wondering how we would react to this game, and I thought we came out well.”

Liz McDonald added eight rebounds for the Pioneers.

Crites gave a lot of credit to Millbrook for its performance, but she also felt her team didn’t play to its potential.

“We didn’t do our job in shutting down Reed and Cook like we should have, and I think offensively, we didn’t do our job,” Crites said. “We missed [eight] free throws and had 16 turnovers, and when you don’t score and they’re hitting everything, you’re not going to come out on top.”

Brooks in particular definitely did what she could to keep the Colonels in the game, as she was able to get layups and draw fouls as a result of speeding down the court after her steals.

Danielle Rizzari added 14 points and three steals for James Wood, Brooke Nesselrodt had 10 points and Morgan Duncan had 10 rebounds.

“I thought Keiana and Danielle both took care of the perimeter [on defense],” Crites said. “I thought Morgan did a wonderful job on the boards and defensively, I couldn’t have asked more from her. I’m proud of her.”

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