Second-half adjustments
Late defense leads Rosamond to win over Eastside
LANCASTER — After Eastside ran into the locker room leading by five points against Rosamond, Roadrunners head coach Justin Armstrong knew his team wasn’t playing to its full potential. So he challenged them.
“At halftime I put it on them,” Armstrong said. “I told them it’s not the defense, it’s the players. We were running the same defense in the first half, but at times we weren’t communicating. They promised to come out in the second half and do it. They were more committed as a team and as a unit.”
After Armstrong finished his monologue at halftime, Rosamond responded.The
Roadrunners outscored the Lions, 37-21, in the second half, forcing Eastside to commit several egregious turnovers en route to a 54-43 victory, Tuesday evening at Eastside High School.
“They stepped up their energy in the second half,” Armstrong said. “Being down at halftime and changing the mindset of their game is what I’m happy about. They came together as a unit and that’s what I’m grateful for. Thanksgiving came early.”
Rosamond improved its record to 3-1 on the young season and is 2-1 against Golden League schools, this year. The Lions fell to 1-1.
Rosamond’s Ariel Cain, coming off a 20-point effort against Lancaster, scored a season-high 28 points, 22 of those coming in the second half. Teammate Rihanna Williams finished with 11 points, including three 3-pointers.
“We played well, but I thought we could have done better,” Cain said. “In the beginning, we were in our own heads. This was a really good game coming off the loss to Lancaster. We got our defense together in the second half. It wasn’t that big of a win, but we lost to them twice last year so it feels good. We’re getting better each game.”
The Roadrunners employed a 1-2-2, half-court trap, which worked well on numerous occasions. Once Rosamond would get a turnover, Cain who was at the top of the defense, would slip out as the Roadrunners threw her the long pass for the easy layup.
Eastside’s Aprill Medrano scored
back-to-back buckets as the Lions took their largest lead of the game, 28-19, with 6:02 remaining in the third quarter. For the final 14 minutes of the game, however, it was all Rosamond.
The Roadrunners promptly went on a 17-0 run, which included 11 straight points by Cain, giving her team a 36-28 lead.
The Lions, which defeated Desert on Monday, closed the third quarter with a 5-0 run, as Rosamond held a slim 36-33 lead entering the fourth quarter.
“We wanted to push and get into an up-tempo game,” Lions head coach Scooter Hall said. “I thought our press was working at times, but sometimes our rotations weren’t there. We wanted to get quick, early offense, but not having our point guard (Kayla Correa) hurt. We couldn’t get into our offensive sets. We just had way too many turnovers.
“We’re trying to teach these girls resiliency, on and off the court and that’s been an everyday battle. When things don’t go your way, you have to battle and fight. Tonight, we didn’t show much fight. This was a great wakeup call for us. Things will come together.”
Eastside trimmed the lead to 41-38 midway through the fourth quarter, but that’s as close as it would get. The Lions’ 25th turnover of the night resulted in a bucket by Williams, which extended Rosamond’s lead to 47-38. Eastside committed 27 turnovers overall.
Following Williams’ two, another turnover by the Lions led to an easy fast-break layup by Cain, pretty much solidifying the game for the Roadrunners, with just under two minutes left.
“We started the second half with a lot of turnovers,” Medrano said. “I thought we were doing well in the first half. It was turnover-after-turnover, but missing our starting point guard really hurt.
“We must stick to our coach’s game plan. We didn’t play great, and we definitely could have won this game. We have things to work on, but we’ll clean those up and be ready.”
Medrano led the Lions with 12 points, while Camrynn Whitley added nine points for Eastside. Mona Fajardo had eight points for the Lions and teammate Adriana Millton added seven points.
The Roadrunners opened the game with a 7-0 run before the Lions began to settle down. The teams played even the rest of the quarter.
Eastside trailed 13-9 in the second quarter and took its first lead of the game, 15-13, following a 6-0 run. The Lions held Rosamond without a field goal for the first six minutes of the quarter.