Lady Lions sing a song of victory

Published 8:30 pm Saturday, January 30, 2016

The day began with Christian Heritage junior forward Mikayla Russell singing a great rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, and for the rest of the afternoon, her and the other Lady Lions were in perfect harmony.

Good ball movement and teamwork, as well as a fast-paced offense, were keys Saturday as Christian Heritage raced past Gordon Central for a 57-45 win.

“We started this game with two things we wrote on the board: Have fun and be an encouragement,” Christian Heritage coach Heather Lowery said. “And we did just that. We started off in a fast-paced game, pushing the ball and getting really good shots in transition. Then mixing up our defenses, finding their shooters and communicating.”

The Lady Lions (6-12) never trailed in the game. Ashlyn Clements got the team off to a solid start, hitting a pair of 3-pointers and scoring nine points in the first quarter as Christian Heritage jumped out to a 13-6 lead after one.

It was just the start to a hot-shooting day that saw Christian Heritage collectively hit on 8 of 16 3-point attempts. Four of the makes came from Clements who tallied a team-high 17 points.

“We got here early, we got here at 11:30 to do some shooting,” Clements said, “then went in and had a team devotion, which I think brings us together and gets us in the mindset to play together as a team.”

Clements and other players also credited the team’s desire to pick up the pace of the game.

“We played really hard and we’ve gotten to where we push the ball more which helps a lot,” Clements said. “Because we’re a young team and we’re very fast, when we’re able to push it we’re more in our comfort zone.”

“I think we did pretty good becuase we normally don’t push the ball, and now we pushed it,” freshman Meghan Schneller added. “I think that we worked good overall as a team.”

Schneller also knocked down a pair of 3-pointers, part of her 13-point day.

A big reason for the outside success came from moving the ball inside. The Lady Lions were able to utilize their forwards to open things up on the perimeter for their shooters.

“We did good driving and dumping it in,” Schneller said. “Once they started covering the inside, the outside was open. We talked good, and did a good job swinging the ball.”

Working the ball through the post players has a point of emphasis for Christian Heritage lately in a attempt to free up the guards.

“We’ve been trying to hit our inside game a lot more,” Lowery said. “And even when it’s not open, at least giving them a touch and kicking it back out, and that’s where our open shots are, and balancing the floor more with our guard play.”

Christian Heritage’s lead reached 11 at halftime before the Lady Lions pulled away in the third quarter. They were 5 of 9 on 3-pointers in the quarter alone. The lead got as high as 24, and was 23 to start the fourth quarter.

As it was all game, they key to the spurt was the teamwork Christian Heritage displayed.

“I think we have a bond, we trust each other,” Clements said. “Because we know we all have the ability to do sometrhing. We have that mindset when we’re going up, but we also have that mindset we can look out to a position and we know someone will be there.”

Gordon Central made a rally in the fourth quarter behind Nina Fleming. Fleming had game-highs in points (23) and rebounds (16), but the Lady Warriors couldn’t get any closer than 12 points. Christian Heritage hit only one field goal in the fourth quarter, but hit 9 of 13 from the foul line to hold off the charge.

“Just calming down, not having to rush,” Lowery said of the key to holding on. “We’re talking to them from the start of the game about pushing the ball, getting the ball up and down the floor. We’re still in that kind of mentality, so we had to take a couple time outs and really calm them down and tell them ‘Look at the scoreboard. We’re not in any hurry now. We just need to take our team and work through this.’ And they did just that.”

Kelsey Schneller added nine points and 10 rebounds for Christian Heritage and Sydney Stafford chipped in eight points.