An injury to a key player can rally the troops on the basketball court or have the opposite effect and freeze them.
Or both.
That is what
happened to Xavier Prep’s Gators on Tuesday night (Feb. 9) against visiting
Chandler Hamilton at the Activity Center.
Promising
sophomore Mia Davis went down with a leg injury not even three minutes in the
game and returned to the bench on crutches for the second half.
In the
meantime, her Gator teammates gave a gallant effort, rallying from an early
five-point deficit for a two-point lead at the half.
The second
half was much different.
Hamilton
(7-1), the defending 6A Conference state runner-up, froze the Gators (4-3) in
their tracks.
The Huskies outplayed
and outscored XCP in the second half 38-17 to win going away 66-47. The final
deficit was similar to the one on Jan. 22, when Hamilton took a 57-37 win at
home over the Gators.
Coach
Jennifer Gillom and her assistants likely will be burning the midnight oil
trying to figure out how to compensate for the loss of Davis, who can play
virtually anywhere on the floor. It is uncertain if she will be sidelined, and
if so, for how long.
The process
will be expedited because Xavier has two more home games this week – on
Thursday (Feb. 11) against Phoenix Pinnacle and on Friday (Feb. 12) against
Phoenix Sandra Day O’Connor.
“I thought
we played hard in the first half,’’ Gillom said. “In the second half, they
(Hamilton) came out determined. They worked hard under the basket, got a lot of
50-50 balls and scored a lot off of box-outs.’’
The Huskies
were dominant with possession of the ball, and that meant more scoring
opportunities.
Senior
guards Graciela Roybal and Amyah Reaves were the primary recipients. Roybal
scored 20 of her 22 points in the second half, including five three-pointers
and three more points from the free-throw line when fouled on another
long-range attempt.
Reaves
scored 19 points, many on drives to the basket.
Senior Tori
Saucedo and freshman Dominique Nesland led the Gators with 11 points apiece,
and sophomore guard Sienna Cherwinski connected on a pair of three-pointers.
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