7 hours Ago By BRENT BRIGGEMAN [email protected]
Pine Creek could compose its own version of “The 12 Days of Christmas” with the tactics thrown its way in the pre-holiday portion of the season. On one day, it has been a triangle and two. On another, a zone with doubles.
On Saturday, it was a stall that dragged possessions out to a minute or more. Soon, it may be drummers drumming, ladies dancing or a partridge in a pear tree. Nothing yet has stopped 6-foot-3 Oklahoma signee Brooklyn Stewart and the Eagles, who topped ThunderRidge 41-31 to go into the holiday break with a perfect 7-0 record.
Stewart scored 14 points — 11 coming in the second half when the Grizzlies finally had to speed things up in an effort to overcome a deficit. Alli Dreessen added 10, and the Eagles just keep winning and adding to their memory bank the ways in which they’ve successfully counteracted the various strategies. “I think it’s great,” Pine Creek coach Janean Jubic-Zenz said.
“We keep telling the girls, ‘Hey, every time someone is going to try to do something different.’ The more we see that, the bigger our basketball IQ is getting. We’re just growing in our knowledge of seeing what’s open, executing when things are tight or when things don’t make exact sense.
It’s invaluable, in all honesty. “I’m kind of grateful people are doing it. By the time we get to February or March, there’s nothing we’re not going to have seen.
” The long-term benefits make it no less exhausting as its happening, particularly for Stewart, as “95% of everyone’s game plan or scheme is to stop her,” Jubic-Zenz noted. ThunderRidge (5-4) routinely swarmed Stewart every time she touched the ball, and when she wasn’t playing with defenders draped on her, she was trying to think through what to do. “It definitely is a little tiring, but I think it overall just makes me a better player,” said Stewart, who showed a glimpse of her skillset on Saturday with a deep outlet pass that led to a layup, soft touch from the interior, midrange and 3-point range and multiple rebounds and steals.
“Definitely having to adjust and learn things to do to be able to help my team out. If that means I don’t score, then I don’t score. As long as we have more points on the scoreboard than they do at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.
” As for ThunderRidge’s stall tactic, Stewart found it “annoying” but also took pride that the team’s defense stayed stout enough to not allow points on multiple possessions that saw at least a dozen passes. The teams played back and forth for the first quarter and a half before Pine Creek jumped ahead on a bucket from Keekaya Burke-Perryman and a 3-pointer from Keelin Sills. After that, the Grizzlies were never within three points.
Now, Pine Creek will take a break before hosting Douglas County on Jan. 3. But the break doesn’t mean no basketball.
Stewart’s sister, Brynae, is back in town on break from playing for CSU-Pueblo. The pair, along with their parents (both former varsity coaches at Pine Creek) plan to be in the gym every day. The grind doesn’t stop when the goal is a golden ring — or maybe medal, let’s allow some holiday leeway — at the end of the season.
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