RANDY HISNER
WZBD.com
GARRETT – A dominant inside game and a balanced scoring attack lifted the Garrett Railroaders to a 55-33 victory over the visiting Heritage Patriots in nonconference girls’ basketball action Tuesday night.
Garrett’s Delaeni Hixson scored a game-high 15 points, all either in the paint or from free throws after she was fouled inside. Teammate Kelsey Bergman tallied 12 points in the same manner. Sarah DePew also had 12 points for the Railroaders (1-0), scoring both inside and out.
“We got the ball inside, and I thought we dominated the boards,” said Garrett coach John Bodey. The Railroaders’ 40 points from the post supported Bodey’s statement. Their effective inside game helped them overcome poor shooting from three-point territory, where they hit only two of 11 attempts (18%).
Heritage coach Nicole Sisson acknowledged her team’s weak post play. “Defensively, we definitely need to drill some things for post defense,” she said. “We’re not big, so we’re going to have to be creative in making things difficult for post players.”
As they did in last week’s loss to Leo, the Patriots (0-2) got off to a good start, leading 6-5 with 4:50 left in the first quarter, mostly on the strength of two layups by freshman Audra Bickel. But then Garrett scored ten straight points on a putback from Hixson, a post-up bucket from DePew, four free throws from Bergman, and finally a 10-foot jumper from DePew to close the quarter with a 15-6 lead.
Heritage’s freshman point guard, Trinitee Brown, opened the second quarter with a three-pointer from the top of the key, making it 15-9. Brown went on to score seven more points in the quarter—most impressively on a slick behind-the-back dribble and drive with 11 seconds left—but got no scoring help from her teammates. Garrett scored 13 in the period, including five from DePew and four from Hixson, to head into the locker room with a 28-16 advantage.
Garrett put the game away with a strong third quarter, outscoring Heritage 18-7 to double up the Patriots 46-23. Heritage won the fourth quarter, 10-9, Brown leading the way with three points to give her a team-high 13.
“There was improvement tonight, especially on the offensive end,” said Sisson of her young team. “We really worked hard over the past week at running our offense more efficiently. I think you saw that tonight. We got some good looks. We had more ball movement, and because of the ball movement we were able to get some drives in the middle and open things up a bit.”
Bodey was impressed with several of the Heritage players. “I think their young girls are good,” he said. “You watch them in warmups, and they can hit shots. It’s just a matter now of getting more fluid as they get more game time.”
The Railroaders hit 18 of 43 two-point attempts for 42%. They also shot well from the free throw line, making 13 of 16 (81%). Heritage made 13 of 33 two-pointers (33%), one of seven threes (14%), and eight of 13 free throws (62%).
Bickel ended with five points for Heritage, while Danica Fuller, Olivia Lybarger, and Natalie Otte each scored four.
Heritage won the reserve contest 26-10. Elise Hissong led the Patriots with nine points.
Next up for Heritage is a home game with Wayne on Tuesday, November 14.