Girls basketball defeated Presentation (Pres) to come out victorious in the Division Championship on Wed. February 25, and now they get to play in the first round of Regionals.
Manual had trouble throughout the first three quarters of the game, where they allowed easy shots and could not get anything going on offense either. Pres played a very tight zone defense to try to limit Manual’s height advantage all game and it worked up until the fourth quarter. Pres limited Manual’s height advantage, forcing the Crimsons to shoot several times from the outside, according to head coach Jeffrey Sparks.
“We knew what Presentation was going to run,” Sparks said. “We’re a bigger team and they are a very fundamental team, so it took us a while to get a good lead. (Pres has) a very well-rounded team and it makes for a good game.”
Pres successfully took the lead for a few minutes in the mid-way through the third quarter, leaidng 27-26. Pres has has an astonishing ability to shoot the ball, and Manual must must better defend and use their height advantage to force turnovers, according to guard Arika Prentice (#25, 12).
“It’s always a scary moment when another team gets ahead of you,” Prentice said. “You never know when they’ll go on a run or just bust open a huge lead.”
Manual came out victorious in the end, though, with a score of 55-38, and now the district champions will get to draw to see who they play first in this year’s Regional Tourney, and hopefully move onward to State.
“It’s a big advantage for us to get home court the first round,” Sparks said. “Tonight we came out slow and in the future we can’t do that. We have to be able to play the full game at our best to keep going in the tournament.”
Prentice, center Krys McCune (#55, 11) and guard Tonysha Curry (#23, 10) were given the “Player of the Game” awards afterwards.
“It feels great to win a tournament like this against a good team, but we can’t get too hyped about it,” Prentice said. “We have to keep moving forward and look to future games and the State Tournament.”
Stay tuned to Redeye and @theCSPNsports on Twitter for the updates about the Regional Tournament, and keep up with Manual girls basketball stats, schedules and more on Maxpreps.
