Champion gets key MVAC win against LaBrae
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CHAMPION -- The Champion girls basketball team needed size and strength to overcome a first-quarter deficit and defeat conference foe LaBrae 52-47 on Monday.
Vikings freshman Mariah Jones dominated the glass and helped LaBrae jump out to an early lead, but Flashes head coach Michael Cole, who earned his 200th career win, wisely turned to senior center Carlie Easterday to take on the challenge presented by Jones.
While Jones still finished with a game-high 19 points, much of her success came with Easterday, who used her significant height advantage well, on the bench. When Easterday entered the game, LaBrae's guards, also as a result of Champion's increasingly aggressive zone defense, struggled to get Jones the ball in the post.
"Mariah does a great job for a freshman. She's very physical. But Carly's got size on her and Carly used that size on her and used her height. It's hard to move Carly around when she doesn't want to be moved. She owned the paint," Cole said.
Champion could not afford for Easterday, who Cole said had been starting for the Flashes until a medical issue forced her out for a few weeks, to stay on the bench.
"We were kind of easing her back in, but we needed her today. So we ran her a lot of minutes today. Not only the defense, but she had some big buckets," Cole said.
Easterday, who finished with 11 points, said her matchup with Jones is one of her favorites.
"I played with her older sister my freshman year, and she was just a really big mentor for me," Easterday said. "So to be playing against her little sister now, it's amazing. It's like a full circle experience. And she's tough to guard. She has some powerful moves, especially for a freshman."
Jones made her impact most known in the early moments of both halves. Her energy and offensive rebounding, along with red-hot perimeter shooting by LaBrae's guards, pushed the Vikings to a 21-12 lead at the end of the first quarter.
But LaBrae's scoring came to a sudden and lengthy halt after a Jones field goal within the first minute of the second quarter. For the rest of the half, the Vikings stalled as the Flashes trimmed the lead and ultimately took one of their own into the half.
Jones revived LaBrae's offense within the opening minute of the second half, as she forced her way to the free-throw line on two consecutive possessions. She would go on to score the first nine points for the Vikings in the quarter, nearly single-handedly keeping LaBrae within striking distance.
With the Champion defenders keying on her and denying her the ball, though, Jones largely cooled off in the fourth quarter; she scored only two points and had zero free throws in the final period. Unfortunately for her and the Vikings, Champion senior guard Kayla Haynie continued to stay hot on the other end.
Haynie, who finished with a team-high 16 points, made two of her four three-pointers in the fourth, as the Flashes fended off LaBrae, which committed several costly turnovers late, and secured the five-point victory.
After the loss, Vikings coach Mandy Rowe said her team's half-court offense needed to be better to escape Champion with a win.
"I thought when we ran our break on them and got it inside, we had a lot more success," Rowe said. "But in the half court, we had to move the ball and just pass and cut, and we were stagnant in our half-court offense. So those are things we're going to go back and tweak."
With the victory, Champion (13-4, 9-1) extends its win streak to seven. On Jan. 25, the Flashes will play 2-13 Campbell, which has yet to win a game in the Mahoning Valley Athletic Conference Grey Tier.
LaBrae (12-3, 7-3) will attempt to rebound with its second win of the season against Brookfield on Jan. 25. The Vikings earned a six-point road victory against the Warriors on Dec. 18.
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