WINTERSVILLE - The Indian Creek girls basketball team knows what's coming and the Harrison Central girls basketball team didn't disappoint.
"We have to value every possession of the ball," said Redskins coach Erin DeSantis. "We have to stay calm and patient. We can't panic. If it's a 50-50 pass we can't make that pass."
Thirty-three Indian Creek turnovers later the Huskies left with a 48-36 victory.
Article Photos
ALONG THE BASELINE — Harrison Central’s 5-foot-3 senior point guard Brooke Shultz drives the baseline against Indian Creek’s freshman 6-foot-5 during Monday’s 48-36 win by the Huskies.
-- Mike Mathison
"When we struggle we lack intensity on defense," said Harrison Central coach Nick Yourkovich. "When we decide we want to guard people, it sparks our offense because it gets us going. That was the goal coming in - eat them up and try to make them make mistakes.
"Defensively, we played pretty well.
"You need easy buckets in transition - especially against them with 6-2 (Kiarra Kamarec) and 6-5 (Bre Berryman) underneath. We have to get some buckets without those girls back there and we did that tonight."
Harrison Central took a 14-9 lead after eight minutes with five girls scoring, Shultz leading the way with a pair of treys.
Indian Creek kept pace with a Mallory Sullivan three, four from Berryman and a pair via Megan Markja.
It was 21-19 Huskies through the next two quarters to take a 33-30 lead entering the final eight minutes.
Berryman scored 15 of her game-high 23 during that time, while Madison Richards had 12 of her team-high 20 at the same time.
Richards netted her lone three for a 38-30 lead and the Huskies cruised from there.
Shultz added 15 points. Richards contributed eight steals and seven rebounds. Erica Koch had four steals and Katie Ellzy three as the Huskies finished with 23, while committing just 14 turnovers.
"I thought we did a good job tonight of being patient on offense," said Yourkovich. "We hit just enough outside shots to make them come out on us and then we did a good job of getting the ball inside after we got the two big girls off the blocks.
"And Brooke did a wonderful job of knocking down foul shots (5 for 7) at the end."
The Redskins are back at it Thursday hosting Martins Ferry.
"We'll come back out and get after it again," said DeSantis. "What else can you do? Our girls need some confidence in themselves to get the job done and I've seen them all do it before.
"We cannot played scared."
Harrison Central visits Buckeye Local Thursday.
Harrison Central 48, Indian Creek 36
Harrison Central 14 9 10 15 - 48
Indian Creek 9 9 12 6 - 36
HARRISON CENTRAL: Richards 7 5-8 20, Shultz 4 5-9 15, Ellzy 2 0-0 4, Brown 2 0-0 4, Koch 1 1-2 3, Custer 1 0-0 2, Rutter 0 0-0 0, Dunfee 0 0-0 0, Dodds 0 0-0 0, Thompson 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17 11-19 48. 3-pointers: Shultz 2, Richards.
INDIAN CREEK: Berryman 11 1-6 23, Sullivan 3 0-0 7, Kamarec 2 0-0 4, Markja 1 0-0 2, Shimko 0 0-0 0, Hukill 0 0-0 0, Winland 0 0-0 0, Callahan 0 0-0 0, Thompson 0 0-0 0, LaRue 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17 1-6 36. 3-pointers: Sullivan.
