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SHEFFIELD, Ohio– Brookside only needed about five minutes to make a statement Wednesday night. After Sanayah Wilborn scored the game’s first basket for Oberlin, that’s all the Phoenix had going for them early on.
Facing a 2-0 deficit, the Cardinals responded.
In a really big way.
They started to put up points in a hurry as they eventually came away with a commanding 48-13 Lorain County League win.
Brookside was able to close out the first quarter on a 12-1 run in the final six minutes, really dominating the game inside the paint. They were allowed to gain separation from Oberlin with a myriad of transition baskets after forcing a slew of turnovers.
Senior Savanah Walls was a force down low for the Cardinals throughout the night, tallying four points and eight rebounds in the first half alone. Shyanne Shinsky played a big part in the second quarter outburst for the Cardinals as well, where the team outscored the Phoenix 13-0 closing out the half. The senior guard had seven points in that quarter, heading into halftime with a team-high nine points to pace her team.
Brookside head coach Rich Flowers explained that transition points along with crashing the boards early on played a pivotal part in his team breaking free from Oberlin. They were able to outscore them 25-1 in the final 14 minutes of the first half.
Establishing an effective half-court offense was also a point of emphasis, and it showed Wednesday night.
“That’s what we were stressing..we’ve been struggling to score and wanted to get in the 40s, that was our emphasis,” Flowers said. “Of course play the passing lanes so we can get the ball out more and then wanted to run our half court offense more…we wanted to strive for consistency in the half court offense and I think that’s what really helped us get to that threshold of 40 points.”
Leading the way for the Cardinals was Shinsky, finishing with a game-high 17 points. Savanah Walls added 12 points and 11 rebounds along with nine points from Zuriah Radeff-Koonce to pace the offense during the win.
“She’s really been dominant on the defensive end. She might’ve had four or five blocks and that’s her calling card; defending the post even when we play more competitive teams,” Flowers said of Savanah Walls.
“Shinksy had some big buckets that kind go changed the complexion of the game and if we don’t get those, the game is still tight which has happened in the past,” Flowers added about leading scorer and senior guard Shyanne Shinsky.
Six different players scored for Oberlin, with Sanayah Wilborn leading the way with four points. Oberlin wasn’t able to keep up with the pace of play from the Cardinals early on as second-chance points really hurt them in the first half.
Committing more than 15 turnovers didn’t help either. Valuing possessions is something Flowers has made adamant to his team heading into Wednesday night’s matchup against Oberlin.
“We stress value possessions and when we do that, we’re ok,” Flowers said. “We didn’t have any unforced errors…This is by far the best game we’ve played all year.”
Next up for the Cardinals is a matchup against Wellington Saturday night.
“Hopefully this (win) will build their confidence,” Flowers said. “We’ve got things on film that we can look over and see what we’ve done well.”
