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Bruins Take Down Red Riders in Girls Basketball, 65-36

Photo by Matt Peaslee Brooke’s Gabby Velegol dribbles around Weir’s Bailey Stead (24) and Gia Fuscardo.

WELLSBURG — With two girls standing 5-foot-10 or taller on the roster, Brooke’s girls’ basketball team is not blessed with an abundance of height. However, Coach Ryan Scherich gets the most of what he has while the smaller girls use plenty of speed to get the job done.

Monday night that speed was a huge factor in 37 Weir turnovers while the Bruins were also able to grab 47 rebounds in remaining unbeaten on the young campaign.

Sophomore Hope Bowman had game-highs of 18 points and 13 rebounds while freshman Ashley Arca added 10 points as the Bruins raced out to a big early lead and never looked back in rolling to a 65-36 pounding of the Red Riders at Brooke High School.

The victory moves Scherich’s group to 2-0 with a huge game back on the home boards Wednesday night against visiting John Marshall. Meanwhile, Rick Stead’s youthful Weir team falls to 0-3.

“We are a shorter team with not a whole lot of height, but we are also very quick and can run the floor,” Scherich said. “With that we are able to create a lot of turnovers and hopefully easy layups. We really want to get out and run this year.”

Brooke scored the initial seven points and after a Gia Fuscardo basket for the Riders, added the next nine in racing to a 16-2 advantage. Junior Aleigha Edgar’s long-distance, buzzer-beating triple made it 19-4 at the end of one.

Things didn’t get any better in the second quarter as the Bruins continued to force turnovers and cash in on numerous second-chance opportunities. Bowman had five points and eight rebounds in the second as the hosts pushed the margin to 36-12 at the break.

Weir’s only real run came early in the third quarter when it followed an Arca field goal with a 9-0 run, before Brooke closed on a 15-7 spurt that made it 53-28 with eight minutes to play. The Bruins erased all doubt with a late 10-0 run.

“This is two games in a row that we have been very aggressive on the glass, even though we are still not boxing out as well as I would like,” Scherich added. “I just want the girls to keep getting better, and to do that we can’t have the other team making 9-0 runs to start a quarter.

“It’s also nice to see Hope Bowman coming along. She has really improved since last year and spends a lot of time playing street ball with the boys and getting stronger. I have always thought she was capable of scoring 15 or so points a night if she goes out and does what she can do.”

Edgar and Kylie Byers added eight each for the winners while Grace Dodson chipped in with seven. The Bruins had four girls with at least six rebounds.

Junior Bailey Stead had a team-high 15 points for Weir while Julia Gianni added 11 and Fuscardo eight, while also pulling down a team-high 11 rebounds. The Riders had only three players hit field goals and four players score.

“There are times when we have four sophomores and a junior on the court together, so we are very inexperienced,” Coach Stead said. “So we are learning as we go and we really need to start learning a little faster.

“This was actually the worst passing we have had in our first three games and there were plenty of missed opportunities with that. Some of the kids are not understanding when we need to play fast and when we need to slow things down, but they are all working hard and we will keep pushing.

“Ryan (Scherich) has a real nice team there, but you just can’t turn the ball over as many times as we did, miss all of those layups and also give up so many second-chance points.”

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