By Thomas Sellers Jr.
The Keegan Bran Era is officially underway in Brighton.
The first year head coach of the Lady Cardinals isn’t too far removed from his days of playing varsity sports at Tipton-Rosemark Academy. Bran is bringing his youthful energy, playing experience and coaching style to a group of players still trying to learn each other.
“I don’t want to sound too positive but it is one of those things looking back on the first two day of practice over the summer you could tell we had a lot of work to do,” Bran recalled. “We hadn’t played a lot of basketball together. The first thing I said when I walked in, ‘We have nine days and we’re going to do a camp. We’re going to drive two and half hours to Missouri for a camp.’”
That bonding time helped the Lady Cardinals make strides into entering the 2021-22 regular season. The second game of the campaign took place Nov. 30 in the Brighton Gymnasium against the Lausanne Lady Lynx. Despite solid play in the second and third quarters from Brighton, Lausanne was able to prevail by dominating the first and fourth periods to win 68-41.
Since coming back from the “Show Me State” the Lady Cardinals have volunteered to improve their skills on the court through time and hard work.
“We didn’t do great up there in Missouri,” Bran acknowledged, “but we did well enough to make them feel a little something. We won two games. That was promising. It was building from there. It’s about literally getting them to understand they can play basketball.”
Brighton looked like they understood the game very well in the closing moments of the second quarter and throughout the third period.
Pruitt, Precious Dennisdan, Marina Ripoll, Gus Johnson, Angelynn Crawford and Mariah Maclin were among the Lady Cardinals using solid defense and good passing on offense to cut into the Lady Lynx double-digit advantage.
After a Johnson three-pointer, the scoreboard in the Brighton Gymnasium read 42-34 in favor of Lausanne.
“They have to get to know each other,” Bran said. “Destiny Pruitt hadn’t played basketball in a year. She was battling COVID last year. She’s going to be good. She sprained her MCL during volleyball. So she has to play in a brace. She’s still coming back from that.
“Then we have some girls like Johnson who have to be more vocal,” he continued. “She has to be more confident. It’s all about getting all of them to build confidence and trust each other. It’s all about getting them to figure it out. But it’s going to be hard for them to trust each other if they don’t have confidence in themselves.”
The Lady Lynx closed out the third quarter with a 6-1 run to reestablish the double-figure lead at 48-35.
Lausanne was led by Madyson Elliott in the fourth quarter to seize control of the contest. Through steals leading to fast break baskets the Lady Lynx prevailed 68-41.
“We won the middle two quarters 30-28,” Bran noted. “I told them I got no explanation of what happened in the opening and closing quarters. That was something for me to see.”
Bran said he was proud of the effort of his players throughout the entire 32 minutes and saw some on-the-court positives. But off the court he wants to see his squad continue to make strides mentally.
“At this point, I am at the stage where I am not trying to supplement too much,” he acknowledged. “Every once in a while you have to check on it.
“But as soon as they try to lean on me too heavily, I have reminded them I can’t be the one who always says calm down,” Bran concluded. “They have to start taking a little bit more control of things.”
