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The A&M Consolidated girls basketball team got a chance to learn a few lessons from Cinco Ranch on Tuesday night at Tiger Gym. Cost of the tutorial was a loss.
Cinco Ranch whipped the Lady Tigers 71-60, showing Consol's girls the value of a balanced offense, the importance of pressure defense and the impact of a good half-court trap.
One more thing. The Lady Cougars demonstrated that not all 3-6 records are created equal.
That was the mark Cinco Ranch brought into the non-district game, but five of those losses were to teams currently ranked in the state's Top 10. The Lady Cougars jumped on Consol early and never trailed, dropping the Lady Tigers to 3-5.
The visitors gave Consol fits with their 3-point shooting, trapping defense and aggressive rebounding. Cinco Ranch set the tone in the first quarter, hitting a couple of 3-pointers and scoring seven points after turnovers caused by a swarming half-court trap.
"They have some big girls at the top of that trap," Consol coach Nelda Gilbert said. "That gives them an advantage."
Consol had the tallest player and biggest advantage in 6-foot-4 junior post Karla Gilbert. The Texas A&M pledge scored 25 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and blocked seven shots, but the rest of the Lady Tigers combined to miss 34 of 48 shots.
Coach Gilbert was disappointed in the Consol defense. Cinco Ranch operated an effective motion offense that produced open shots from long range and near the basket. The Lady Cougars made 5 of 19 shots from beyond the 3-point line, and they shot well on drives to the basket when their attempts weren't swatted away by Gilbert.
"We gave them too much room, and all of them can shoot," coach Gilbert said. "The girls are not mentally and physically in shape to handle teams that can shoot the 3 like that. We were not communicating. That was the biggest issue."
Consol trailed 18-10 after one quarter and spent the rest of the game playing catch-up. The Lady Tigers stayed within striking distance on the inside work and free throws of Gilbert, fast-break baskets by Kiera Scott and outside shooting of Rachel Carter.
The Lady Tigers missed 8 of 12 shots and were out-rebounded 13-5 in the third quarter. Cinco Ranch took a 57-45 lead into the final period before Consol made a charge.
Gilbert produced five points and assisted on baskets by Scott and Danyetta Williams as the Lady Tigers scored nine consecutive points to pull within 61-56 with 4 minutes, 29 seconds left. However, Scott missed a fast-break layup attempt that would have trimmed the lead to three points, and then Cinco Ranch converted a turnover into two free throws and Allison Drost drained a 3-pointer.
"That was our chance," coach Gilbert said. "We scored after a couple of turnovers, but we should have scored after about four."
Junior guard Demi Clinch led Cinco Ranch with 20 points and eight rebounds. She helped the Lady Cougars win the battle of the boards 45-32 even though for brief stretches Cinco Ranch used a lineup with four players shorter than 5-8.
Carter was the only other Consol player to score in double figures with 12 points on 5-of-14 shooting. She and Tierra Tucker were second on the team with four rebounds each.
Cinco Ranch 71, Consolidated 60
(Numbers indicate field goals, free throws, rebounds, fouls and points)
CINCO RANCH (4-6) -- Kellie Ros 3-11 2-2 2 3 10; Demi Clinch 8-15 4-5 8 2 20; Kelly Richard 1-1 0-0 1 2 2; Carly Dittert 0-3 0-1 1 2 0; Ashley Roberts 2-4 0-0 2 2 4; Allison Drost 3-5 0-0 3 0 8; Robyn Dumas 1-1 0-0 5 1 2; Tara Cioccia 2-8 1-4 0 2 5; Megan Palmer 6-8 1-1 5 0 13; DeDe Nwanguma 0-2 0-0 6 5 0; Brandy Dittert 2-4 2-2 7 4 7. Totals: 28-62 10-15 45 23 71.
CONSOLIDATED (3-5) -- Tierra Tucker 1-3 1-3 4 3 3; Kara Mason 1-6 0-1 1 5 2; Meg Knight 0-1 0-0 0 1 0; Kiera Scott 4-13 0-0 3 3 8; Rachel Carter 5-14 0-2 4 1 12; Dallas Lewis 1-1 0-0 1 1 2; Karla Gilbert 6-10 13-15 14 2 25; Danyetta Williams 1-5 4-6 3 2 6; Ashley Adeyemi 1-5 0-0 0 0 2. Totals: 20-58 18-27 32 18 60.
Cinco Ranch 18 17 22 14 -- 71
Consolidated 10 21 14 15 -- 60
3-point shooting -- Cinco Ranch 5-19, Consol 2-12.
Turnovers -- Cinco Ranch 18, Consol 17.
JV -- Cinco Ranch 59, Consol 51. AMC: Karrian Chambers 16, Bri Donovan 11.
Next -- Consol will start the Tomball Tournament on Thursday.
