After a turbulent regular season that saw the Kits finish with an 11-19 (3-7 CSL) record the ETHS Girls Basketball team came into their Regional Semi-Finals matchup against Taft knowing they had nothing to lose. In a game hosted at their home court, Kits won in dominant fashion 53-36 playing almost the entire game with smiles on their faces in most of the team’s first playoff game.
“Our extremely young team was under almost no pressure and that allowed them to go out and have fun. Which led to them playing at their very best,” said Head Coach Brittany Johnson.
Freshman Charity Bryant opened the scoring from the free-throw line before Taft junior Gabriela Gonzalez sunk a three which gave Taft a 3-2 lead inside the first minute. Gonzalez’s bucket would prove to be both the Eagle’s only lead of the game and their only points from open play for the next eleven minutes. The Kits used their physicality to dominate the court, not allowing the Eagles a single successful drive in the first half and forcing them to take difficult three-point shots they continuously missed. The Eagles’ offense was also one-dimensional as all but three of their first-half points came through Gonzalez.
“We knew they were going to heavily rely on Gonzalez coming in. I think we did an excellent job guarding her in the first half, which shut down their entire offense,” remarked Johnson.
The Kits also were able to string together a series of impressive offensive plays as Bryant threaded the ball beautifully to senior Jayla Warren for an inside bucket before Bryant found sophomore Peyton King for a wide-open corner three in almost an identical pass. King would knock down the shot as time expired in the first quarter with the Kits leading 15-4. It was more of the same from Kit’s offense in the second quarter as freshman Ella Martin and junior Sandra Deeney would hit highly contested three-pointers as the Kits went into the locker room with a 26-13 advantage.
“We played with an incredible amount of freedom and energy in the first half. We also knocked down shots that we were not knocking down earlier in the season” commented Johnson.
Bryant would get a nice steal leading to an easy layup to increase the Kit’s lead to 30-15 three minutes into the second half. Taft finally started to show some sparks on offense as they started to spread around more leading to more successful break throws of Kits defensive block. Taft junior Jalisa Ross dashed past ETHS senior Havana Van Wyk and banked a tough shot in. She then set up a corner three for freshman Sehvyn Foster which cut the Kits lead to 31-24 with two minutes to go in the third quarter. Kits fans were getting increasingly uncomfortable as Foster would get another basket to close out an impressive 14-6 run in the span of the last four minutes of the third quarter.
“We lost our way in the third quarter. That being said, I always remained confident in our team’s ability to play through adversity and I knew it would be a good learning experience for them” said Johnson.
The Kits repaid their coaches’ trust in the best way possible, completely blowing away the Eagles in the final frame. They would continue to play unselfish basketball which was highlighted in a drive from Martin where she used multiple behind-the-back dribbles to get past countless defenders before kicking the ball out to Bryant for a wide-open three-point look which she converted to give the Kits back a comfortable lead at 43-29 halfway through the final frame. The Kits continued to make amends for their third-quarter woes in the final quarter where they would go to win 17-7. Bryant was clearly the Kit’s outstanding player with 18 points and 5 rebounds.
“Bryant has been phenomenal for us all year long. Despite her age, she has consistently proved to be a great leader in times of adversity,” praised Johnson.
The Kits will face a highly ranked Loyola team this Friday at Beardsley in the Regional Finals.
