WESLEY CHAPEL – With less than five minutes to play in the third quarter against Wiregrass Ranch, Steinbrenner’s worst nightmare came true.
Freshman center Rachel Briere, who has averaged 11.1 points per game, yelled out in pain, as she lay on the court holding her right knee. That’s when Steinbrenner Head Coach J.R. Allen turned to his bench and gestured for senior center Rebecca Cohen to go in.
“After Rachel went down, coach told me ‘we need you’ and everyday he told me I needed to be physical, but really it’s for the team and I’m a senior so I stepped it up,” Cohen said.
Cohen’s eight points, 10 rebounds, three blocks and two steals gave the Warriors the added late push it needed to beat the Bulls, 41-32 in a key Class 7A-District 9 meeting on Jan. 6.
For Allen, it was a moment 16 games in the making as he says Cohen, who scored six of her eight points in the fourth quarter, finally got over a mental hump that has plagued her all year.
“With Rebecca it’s all been mental,” Allen said. “She has the physical gift, she knows that, I know that, but it’s all been a mental block for her and for whatever reason, she was able to shake that off … it was huge and if she didn’t I feel like maybe the game goes the other way and we don’t get it done because, everything she did when she came in was a positive.”
The Warriors (14-2) found themselves locked in an unusually tight game against the Bulls (13-6), as shots didn’t want to fall for both teams in the first two quarters.
“You talk about poor shooting, I wanted to joke and ask if they put any lids on the rim before the first half because no shots were going in,” Allen said.
The Warriors defense picked up the offense though, as the Bulls could only manage shots on the outside which the Steinbrenner defense easily handled.
“We kind of communicated that the defense had to pick up (with the lack of offense) and it did tremendously,” Allen said.
In the second quarter, Steinbrenner junior guard Baylee Hooker, who injured her head during a collision the day before
in practice, began to set the pace offensively. After a layup from Bulls sophomore forward Logan Seoane, Hooker took the ball coast to coast to give the Warriors an early advantage.
“I had to push through it,” Hooker, who finished with a team high 18 points, said of her injury. “I had to come out with the mindset that it wasn’t there and it wasn’t a big factor because the adrenaline in the game made it go away.”
In the second half, the Bulls kept chiseling away at the Warriors lead which got as low as five before Briere’s injury. Allen said he’s not going to speculate on the extent of the injury, but did say Briere will have an MRI to see if there’s any major damage.
The Bulls kept it close as senior guard Kelly McCaffery would fire off a pair of threes to keep Wiregrass Ranch within five late, but the Warriors defense proved to be too much as a block by Cohen late and multiple converted free throws off of fouls would seal the Bulls’ fate.
Wiregrass Ranch Head Coach John Gant says while the loss hurts, he was glad to see what he calls a maturing team on the court.
“We grew up a bit tonight,” Gant said. “I was really pleased with our effort on defense and we adjusted well on their pressure we just didn’t play well on offense tonight which was our Achilles heel, that’s why we didn’t win the game.”
On the boys side, Wiregrass Ranch got its revenge over Steinbrenner, defeating the Warriors 91-69 on Jan. 6 to leap back into the district title conversation.
In the first meeting between the two district opponents, Steinbrenner (8-5) won a shootout over the Bulls (7-7) at home, 108-101.
However, the Bulls adjusted from that game, and Head Coach Jeremy Calzone says it was all about keeping the Warriors off the scoreboard.
“We’ve had trouble with our defense all year and I feel like we finally came together as a team,” Calzone said. “Just to see our guys come out and commit to playing defense, it was awesome.”
Warriors Head Coach Steve Williams says the adjustments the Bulls made from then to now made a huge difference in the outcome.
“I thought that we were just outplayed tonight,” Williams said. “It was a great ball game when we played them in our place, it went down to the wire, but tonight we just couldn’t make the shots like we did and they did a good job.”
Senior forward Rico Kerney led the Bulls with 36 points and junior shooting guard Drake Wagner led the Warriors with 14 points on the night.
Jeff Odom / Sports Editor
