In typical Cumberland County Lady Jets fashion, aggressive defense and easy scoring opportunities led them to their eighth win of the season on Tuesday night when they faced off against the Kingston Lady Yellow Jackets. The Lady Jets led from start to finish as Kingston struggled to keep up.
“We came out really aggressive, [and we] wanted to get out fast and play a lot of people today,” said head coach Kim Cram-Torres.
Cumberland County’s quick start in the first period began with a Sydney Wilhite 3-pointer coming off an offensive rebound. The Lady Yellow Jackets responded with a three of their own, but then couldn’t get anything easy as Cumberland County went on a 15-3 run over the first four minutes.
Kingston turned the ball over several times in the opening period, allowing the Lady Jets to get out in transition for easy points. The Lady Yellow Jackets also committed five fouls to Cumberland County’s one.
At the end of the first, the Lady Jets held a comfortable lead, 26-9.
The second period opened with back-to-back 3-point shots from Wilhite and Aliyah Hawkins. A 19-4 Cumberland County run over seven minutes was led by Wilhite’s fourth and fifth steals and multiple threes. Heading into the half, the Lady Jets held a 30-point lead, 50-20.
Cumberland County kept their foot on the gas in the third period, as Wilhite and the Lady Jets defense continued to force turnovers and get out in transition. Kingston had more than 10 giveaways and was in foul trouble more often than not. The third quarter ended with the Lady Jets ahead 61-31.
In the fourth period Kingston went on a 19-4 run to cut the lead to 15 late in the quarter. However, another Wilhite three effectively put the game away and the Lady Jets grabbed the win, 74-54.
Even with a big lead, it can be difficult to keep teams from growing complacent.
“If you figure out [how to prevent complacency], let me know,” said Cram-Torres.
“That’s something we talked about [at halftime]. When we took the press off, now we have to create the same level of energy in the half-court. We needed to keep scoring. I felt like we came out rather flat, but that’s a learning curve that the young players have to overcome because [sometimes] they do play the score and situation.”
Wilhite led all scorers with 33, while Hawkins tallied 21 points. Kingston’s Braxton Fritz and Mavis Neal combined for 33 points.
Tuesday’s win puts Cumberland County at 8-1 on the season with two tournaments on the horizon: the DTC Christmas Classic and the Tampa Bay Christmas Invitational.
Cram-Torres believes these tournaments will prove beneficial in more than just game experience.
“The [Tampa] tournament will give us some challenges. We’ll be in the bracket that’s playing with the shot clock, so that will be a new experience and give our kids more adversity to deal with. The more adversity they see early, the better off we are in the long run,” Cram-Torres said.
She continued, “Most importantly we just want to get away and spend time together. When these girls are in their 50s and 60s and they’re thinking back on their time in high school, they’re not going to remember any of the teams they won or lost to, but they are going to remember these types of trips. So, we are going to embrace that and build some really good team chemistry.”