Posted on November 27, 2014.
By Thomas Sellers Jr.
Brighton guard Bailee Beard goes up for a layup last Thursday night in the Brighton Gymnasium after making a steal against the MMHS Lady Mustangs. Brighton’s pressure defense held the Lady Mustangs to one field goal the entire game.
The scoring summary for the Memphis Metro Home School Lady Mustangs last Thursday was a field goal in the first quarter and two free throws in the second quarter. Meanwhile the Brighton Lady Cardinals used a balanced attack on offense to light up the Brighton Gymnasium scoreboard winning 53-4. “I was happy on our defensive side,” Brighton Head Coach Kent Cates said. “We did get a little sloppy at times on offense. We didn’t always cut with aggression or make good passes into the cutters. All in all I was happy with the performance. Any time you can get a ‘W’ it’s a good one.” The Lady Cardinals started off hot toward the ‘W’ jumping out to a 17-0 lead in the first quarter. Several Brighton players contributed to the 17 points including Sam Sloan and Jada Johnson with layups in the paint. With a minute and 54 seconds left in the first quarter the Lady Mustangs got on the board with a layup. Brighton was ahead 17-2 after one period. The Lady Cardinals continued their balanced attack in the second quarter outscoring MMHS 16-2 in that eight minutes. Lady Cardinals to score in the second quarter were Makayla Rose, Danielle Collins, Shayna Johnson and Lindsey Morrissett with a three-pointer. Brighton was ahead 33-4 at halftime. In the second half Brighton’s pressure defense and traps kept the Lady Mustangs from getting into their half court set. The pressure led to easy transition baskets for Keyona Johnson and Shayna Johnson. Shayna led the way with 14 points. Rose and Keyona Johnson combined for 15 points and Collins added 10 points in the victory. Despite winning by 49 points, Cates knew his team left some points off the scoreboard. “The main things is like I just told them, ‘On offensive side, we must cut,’” he said. “I knew our defense was going to be aggressive. We’re going to be this way all year win or lose. We’re going to press and get after people harder than we ever had.
“But offensively are we cutting with a purpose,” Cates concluded. “I focused on that before the game, at halftime and after the game. When we cut, we have to cut with a purpose and look for them because a lot of the time we are open. We didn’t hit a lot tonight.”
