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Brookfield girls hold off Girard
Brookfield holds off
Girard rally
with late
stand
By Ryan Buck
BROOKFIELD
After watching a second-half lead as large as 14 dwindle to a mere five points late in the fourth quarter Wednesday night, the Brookfield girls basketball team showed its mettle.
The Warriors (2-1) and their defense shut down a pesky Girard squad in the final two minutes to emerge with a 62-53 victory.
Brookfield allowed zero made shots in the final 2:54 of the fourth quarter and made several timely plays on offense to pull away.
None made more impact than Autumn Kirila’s offensive rebound off a missed free throw with 1:18 left in the game.
With the Warriors leading 55-51 after Girard guard Makayla Trebella split a pair of free throws, Brookfield guard Brooke Hiner was fouled at the other end of the court to put her at the free-throw line with a one-and-one opportunity.
Kirila powered inside the lane past a smaller Girard lineup to snare the missed foul shot, pump-faked into two defenders and found teammate Destiny May unguarded under the basket.
May’s layup was good and the senior also was fouled.
Kirila and Hiner both converted their own free-throw opportunities in the final minute to seal the win.
Kirila scored eight of her 10 points in the second half while May’s versatility — inside and away from the basket — were on full display in a 16-point performance.
“They made key rebounds — both of them — and a couple putbacks,” said Brookfield coach Shawn Hammond. “I knew how this game would be. [Girard is] a little quicker than us and I knew if we didn’t turn it over, I knew we would have a chance to build a little bit of a lead in the second half.”
Hammond deployed multiple zone defenses in the latter stages to mitigate a Girard team that is not afraid to shoot from anywhere on the court.
“We told them to get out and extend the defense at them,” Hammond said.
Any lead Brookfield did build — until the final seconds ticked away — was ultimately erased by the Indians, especially on a methodical third-quarter run.
The Warriors threatened to break the game open with 4:15 left in the third as Hiner drilled a jumper with a hand in her face to give Brookfield a 41-27 lead.
The Indians, thanks to a pair of 3-pointers from Ali Ciminero and a ferocious stand defensively, clawed back into the game and trailed 45-39 headed into the fourth quarter.
“I’m pretty confident in our kids when they play in the open floor,” said Girard coach Andrew Saxon, whose team had a decisive height disadvantage with foul trouble to center Alexia Page Boyd. “We’re a little short and we’re not going to get offensive rebounds, so we’re one shot-and-done a lot of the time.
“We want to score off transition as much as possible, but our shooting was a little bit cold tonight and I think we’re a better shooting team than what we showed.”
Makayla Trebella and Dakota Naples each made steals as the third quarter wound down before May knocked down a short jump shot as time expired. Out of a timeout with five minutes remaining, substitute Alishia Quinlan snuck in for a basket to push the Brookfield lead to 51-43. Naples responded with a shot of her own and Trebella bullied her way to the free-throw line time and again. She scored a game-high 17 points.