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The Beaumont Blue Streaks made the drive to Parma to take on the on the Padua Bruins in a conference match up. This would be a matchup of two young teams early in the season. There would only be one senior in the starting lineup between the two teams.
Beaumont came out of the gates swinging with an aggressive style of play to try and force quick turnovers. They did this by using a full court man to man press and fall back into a two three zone. The Blue Streaks controlled the pace but struggled with developing much offense.
The first quarter would be in favor of the Bruins as they would take a 14-8 lead due to transition offense. The Bruins would do a great job drive and kicking to find an open shooter.
Beaumont would change up the strategy on defense by playing a more aggressive 2-3 zone. This forced the guards of Padua into tough passes and forced them to stay away from the three-point shot.
Beaumont’s offensive rebounding would be a thorn in the side of the Bruins. Almost all the Blue Streak’s points came from second chance points. Beaumont held the Bruins to only one point the entire second quarter as they took the lead 25-15.
Senior guard Arianna Pomirleanu was the leading scorer for the Bruins in the first half with eight points. Beaumont’s Sophomore 5’11 forward Mackenzie Callender dominated the paint in the first half as she led her team with 11 points, mainly off second chance points. Most of the scoring for the Blue Streaks would be from free throws.
Beaumont would continue to throw different defensive looks at the Bruins by changing their 2-3 zone into a 3-2 zone. This zone would be used to defend the three ball and leaving the paint open for attack. Padua changed their defense as well, falling back into an aggressive 2-3. The Bruins would go back and forth on this defense adjustment.
The third quarter would go back and forth the entire way as both teams traded blows and tried to create separation and the other trying to close the gap. As the fourth quarter would start the score would be 36-26 in favor of the Blue Streaks.
The fourth quarter started of slow as the first point of the quarter came at the five-minute mark from Beaumont’s Callender. Both teams would trade points back and forth, making the score 40-30 with under three minutes to play in the game.
Coach Jay Valadez would tell his team in the huddle with 1:30 left in the game to just shoot, and just shoot they did. The Bruins would get a two-point layup and get a steak resulting into a three.
With just under a minute left the Bruins were down by five as sending Summerfield to the free throw line for the Blue Streaks. She would miss the free throw, but her team would have her back by giving the ball back and letting Sophomore guard Avery Carr ice the game with two free throws to bring the Blue Streaks lead to seven.
Coach Derrick Russell credited his defense for his teams win, switching up styles and strategies to help put his team in a position to win the game. He also gave credit to his sophomore forward Mackenzie Callender who led her team on the boards and in the points column.
That would be the decider as the Blue Streaks would take the cake against the Bruins with a score of 42-35.
Entertaining game by both teams . Sloppy second qt by Padua which made the difference. I agree with the Padua coach they needed to shoot more they looked tentative. Both teams are well coached . It was nice to see the mutual respect both coach’s had for each other after the game … that’s nice to see these days . Both teams can make a run in the playoffs!