Wright makes right for Lightning

Rick Devereux

While two wrongs don’t make a right, one Wright certainly makes the

Sage Hill School girls basketball team tough to beat.

Junior forward Haywood Wright scored a game-high 19 points, 13

coming in the second half, to led the Lightning to a 47-45 victory

over visiting Woodcrest Christian in the second round of the CIF

Southern Section Division IV-A playoff game.

Sage Hill, which improves to 14-8, will play at Brentwood in the

quarterfinals Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.

“I think [Wright] is the best player in the area,” Coach Shanna

Renken said. “I think she’s one of the best defensive players in the

nation.”

Wright added four blocked shots and 18 rebounds to her stat line,

but the most important numbers for Sage were Wright’s eight straight

points to open the second half and give the Lightning a 28-24 lead.

“We need an offensive leader and she became our offensive leader

[against Woodcrest],” Renken said. “This was the first time I’ve seen

her drive the basket, have someone open on the wing and not pass to

her. She was attacking the hoop.”

Joining Wright for the second-half surge was senior guard Vicky

Gutierriez. Gutierrez scored eight of her 12 points in the fourth

quarter.

“She has got such a quick first step to the basket,” Renken said.

“Now she’s starting to play smarter. She played like a senior

[against Woodcrest].”

Gutierrez was 4 for 4 from the free throw line, not only giving

Sage Hill points, but also getting the Royals’ players into foul

trouble.

“She drew a lot of fouls,” Renken said. “That was key for us, to

get [Kelsie Scumacher] into foul trouble.”

Sage took a 41-40 lead on a Gutierrez layup with less than five

minutes remaining. Senior Katie Puishys extended the lead when she

grabbed an offensive rebound and converted the put-back to give Sage

Hill a 43-40 lead with 4:20 left.

Kelsie Scumacher hit a three-pointer to tie the score at 45-45

with 2:20 left in the game, but Wright grabbed an offensive rebound

and made the put-back for the eventual game-winning basket with 1:22

remaining.

Woodcrest had an opportunity at the end of the game to tie or take

the lead when a Royal player grabbed a rebound and dribbled up the

court with less than 10 seconds in the game, but she was called for

traveling with 3.8 seconds left for a turnover. The Lightning missed

three straight free throws with less than 14 seconds remaining that

would have sealed the victory.

Woodcrest Christian started the game on a 9-0 run thanks to four

Sage Hill turnovers.

“It was obvious the other team wanted to win more than we did at

the start,” Renken said. “But we’re a second-half team and we know

we’re a second-half team.”

The Lightning battled back to tie the game at 20-20 with 1:04 left

in the second quarter when Wright hit two free throws. The Royals

regained the lead on two free throws by Emily Nichols with 48 seconds

left.

Woodcrest could have had an even wider lead, but the Royals

converted four out of 12 free throws in the first half. The visitors

were nine of 18 in the game while the Lightning were nine of 15.

“Coach told us [at halftime] that we were better than this team,”

Wright said. “We made better passes and played smarter with the ball

[in the second half].”

Sage Hill opened the game with a full-court press but abandoned

that defense after the Royals were able to break the press and get

easy layups.

“We were doing little things wrong [on the press],” Ranken said.

“We switched to a man defense because we knew this team could shot

the ball. When they were warming up, everyone of them was hitting

three-pointers.”

The win had a little bit of revenge for Sage hill since the boys

basketball team was eliminated from the CIF Southern Section Division

IV- A playoff by Woodcrest Wednesday night.

“I did not stress that point to the girls [before the game], but

we definitely wanted to get [Woodcrest] back,” Renken said. “They are

a part of this program, too.”

CIF Division IV-A

Second round

Sage Hill 47,

Woodcrest Christian 45

Score by Quarters

*--*

Woodcrest 15 7 14 9 -- 45

Sage Hill 10 10 14 13 -- 47

*--*

Woodcrest -- Rollins 5, Scumacker 13, Nichols 15, Pratt 3, Henry

7, Stovner 2, Hawkins 0, McFerren 0.

3-pt. goals -- Nichols 3, Scumacher 1.

Fouled out -- Pratt.

Technicals -- None.

Sage Hill -- McKeon 3, Wright 19, Puishys 5, Tyre 0, Schaefer 0,

Hembarsky 8, Gutierrez 12.

3-pt. goals -- None.

Fouled out -- None.

Technicals -- None.