Posted on January 12, 2017.
By Thomas Sellers Jr.
TRA guard Megan Sanfratello goes up for two of her 29 points against Westminister.
At the end of one quarter, the score was the Westminister Lady Defenders 10 and Megan Sanfratello 19. The Tipton-Rosemark Academy Lady Rebel freshman guard was on fire Jan. 3 hitting 5 triples in the opening quarter to help give her team a 22-10 advantage. TRA and Sanfratello kept up the pace the entire evening in the TRA Gymnasium winning 64-25 and the guard dropping 29 points on Westminister. “She came out and hit her first few,” TRA Head Coach Cameron Pridemore said. “Which is big for her coming out and getting some points early. Seeing the ball go through the hoop, that’s something that’s been hard for all us starting off hot at the beginning of a game. That’s something we’ve been telling them we have to be intentional about,” he added. “We have to be intentional about getting ready to play. We’ve been doing a better job of that last week at Lewisburg and into tonight. She’s a perfect example of that. The girls did a really good job of getting her the ball.” The Lady Rebels arrived to the Westminister contest trying to improve off a 2-1 trip to the Lewisburg Tournament last month. TRA’s only defeat in Mississippi at the end of 2016 was to the host in a close contest. “They really played well,” Pridemore noted. “We didn’t shoot free throws well. That’s what got us. We were 8 of 24 from the free throw line. That was really tough. We did play well over those three games.” Looking to keep the positive momentum going into the New Year, the Lady Rebels jumped out early on Westminister. With the score 3-2 in favor of TRA, Sanfratello caught first hitting four three-pointers to make the score 15-5. Later Sanfratello made a steal and drove to the rim for layup making the score 17-5. After the Lady Defenders went on a quick 5-0 run, Sanfratello snatched the momentum back with her fifth three-pointers of the first quarter. “It got to the point there in the first quarter before it left her hand, you knew it was in,” Pridemore said. “That’s is a lot of fun and I am happy for her and proud of her. Those are the fun nights to have. And the girls were looking for her which made it more fun. She played well and the team played very well.” Sanfratello scored 19 of 20 points to begin the game for TRA. Brianna Hall closed out the opening quarter with a layup to make the score 22-10. TRA led 36-15 at the break behind buckets from Neely Turner, Abby West, Eva McIntosh and Jordan Allen. The Lady Rebels closed out the competitive phase of the game in the third quarter outscoring Westminister 22-6. West got the quarter started with a layup. Then Brittany Hall hit a jumper to make the score 40-15. Near the end of the period West, Sanfratello and Turner all scored buckets in the lane. TRA outscored Westminister 6-4 in the fourth quarter to prevail 64-25.
“I felt adding tonight onto that, I liked where we’re at,” Pridemore said. “We’ll have to keep improving as we go. But I do like where we’re at as we head into district play.”
