Cold shooting costs Briarcrest girls in state basketball tournament

 from Commercial Appeal


There are bad nights. And then there's what the Briarcrest girls went through in Thursday's TSSAA Division 2-AA state semifinal basketball game.

The Saints missed shots in every conceivable way and were dominated on the boards, losing to Brentwood Academy, 51-23. Briarcrest, which entered the contest riding a 26-game winning streak, ends the year with a 27-2 record.

"It's frustrating because I thought we had a chance to win it all this year," said Briarcrest coach Lee Smith. "Of course, we'd need some luck to go our way but I never thought we'd come out and not rebound and shoot it like we did.

"I would have never written a script like this."

Only Stephen King could have written a script like this. Briarcrest missed all 16 of its first-half field goal attempts and went into halftime already down, 26-9. Things didn't improve much in the second half and the Saints finished the game 3 of 42 from the floor. That translates to 7.1 percent and that translates to no chance.

"I thought we got impatient early," said Smith, whose team lost in the semifinals for the second straight year.

"We had such a bad start and we hadn't been in this situation before all year, having to play from behind."

While Briarcrest was struggling, Brentwood Academy was efficiently knocking down its shots. The Eagles finished the game at 45.5 percent. And when Maren Kreid buried a 40-foot 3-pointer at the end of the third to put the Eagles ahead 39-17 even the most diehard Saints fan had to concede it just wouldn't be their day.

"We got behind early and I think we started to kind of freeze up," said Briarcrest junior standout Jasmine Cincore. "And like Coach said, rebounding was a big key."

Compounding the Saints' shooting woes was Brentwood's huge advantage on the glass. The Eagles outrebounded Briarcrest, 40-22.

"That's to Brentwood's credit," said Smith. "They threw us around like rag dolls and I'm disappointed we didn't fight back better."

Cincore, a junior who is one of three finalists for the Miss Basketball award which will be handed out at the conclusion of Saturday's championship game, led the Saints with 13 points, going 11 of 12 from the free-throw line.

Jai Murphy and Hailey Pearson led the Eagles (19-10) with 14 points apiece while Pearson contributed 15 rebounds.

DIVISION 2-AA STATE TOURNAMENT
SEMIFINAL
Brentwood Aca. (51) — Hall 4, Jackson 6, Murphy 14, Pearson 14, Stephens 4, Kreid 9.
Briarcrest (23) — Jasmine Cincore 13, Bailey Kramer 1, Kalynn Parks 3, Rachel Peete 2, Olivia Salazar 4.
Brentwood Aca. / 16 / 10 / 13 / 12—51
Briarcrest / 2 / 7 / 8 /  6—23
Records — Brentwood Aca. 18-10, Briarcrest 27-2.