Staff photo / Brian Yauger Badger junior Gabriella Miller dribbles to the net to put up a shot against the defense of Maplewood’s Raegan Krieg in the Braves’ league victory over Maplewood.

VERNON — The free-flowing Badger offense and lockdown defense make for a lethal combo when both are firing on all cylinders.

After a slow start, the Braves got rolling, and came out on top with a 61-43 league victory over Maplewood.

“We just weren’t firing on all cylinders, both offensively and defensively (early),” Badger coach Patrick Carney said. “We weren’t communicating on defense, we weren’t sure what defense we were in, and we weren’t matched up. Offensively, we were settling for a lot of 3s, but once we got into the flow of things, I think that we picked up the energy towards the end of the first half and then we really kicked it into gear in the second half.”

Senior Katie Grexa showcased her court vision throughout the contest, including multiple no-look passes that led to points. That spread approach got four Braves past the double-figure threshold.

Grexa finished with 11 points in the contest. Gabriella Miller (17 points), Brianna Huscroft (12), and freshman Avery Rice (12) each reached the double-digit mark.

It’s been a trademark of this Badger team this season. The free-flowing offense with highlight-reel passes and a willingness to spread the ball around.

It’s a double-edged sword sometimes though, as the first half was ripe with turnovers on both ends of the court.

“Our girls do a really good job of sharing the ball,” Carney said. “They’re willing passers. Sometimes I probably let them play a little too freely, but we do have athletes and we have girls that are capable of scoring, so I do like to let them play.

“There’s probably times I need to pull back the reins a little bit, but we like to get up and down, we like to create turnovers, and get a lot of stops that create easy looks on the other side.”

Three of Maplewood’s players crossed the 10-point mark as well with the lone senior, Madyson Cikosh, leading the way with 14 points. Aliah Brumit and Raegan Krieg followed close behind with 12 and 10 respectively.

“We were hoping to keep this game a little closer than what we did, but a team like that they go a team like that, they’ve got numbers coming in and out,” Maplewood coach Stephanie Pykare said. “They all do a really nice job of getting hands on the ball, creating pressure, and making it feel like there’s more than five players on the floor at times. Hats off to them. They’ve been working hard on this task for a very long time.”

With just seven players on the roster, and all but one of them being underclassmen, the Rockets have an additional set of challenges beyond who is on the opposing bench.

Despite those odds, Maplewood sits at 9-5 on the season and 5-3 in the Northeastern Athletic Conference.

With such a young roster and so few players, Pykare has had to get creative, not only in games, but with practice as well. Intrasquad scrimmages obviously aren’t an option, so resourcefulness has to take over.

“We have to get super creative with them,” Pykare said. “We have alumni coming in, I practice with them, just trying to do everything we possibly can to get them up and down. It’s super tough sometimes, but we haven’t made that an excuse.”

Maplewood travels to Brookfield to face the Warriors on Saturday.

Badger has a quick turnaround as they face Windham on the road. The Braves are the opening act in a boys-girls doubleheader against the Bombers.

byauger@tribtoday.com