Lake Taylor’s 76-30 demolition of No. 10 Booker T. Washington Friday night was an all-hands production.
The Titans, challenged by their coach to step up their intensity, forced 30 turnovers with a pressing defense and wound up having 10 of their 11 players hit the scoring column.
“I told the team that we were going to play all 11 and come at Booker T. the whole game, that we were going to press all over the floor,” said Lake Taylor coach Saundra Sawyer. “Booker T. has been our focus for all of our 2008 practices.”
It didn’t take much for the Titans (8-2 overall, 4-1 Eastern District) to get into the pressing spirit. Booker T. (7-4, 3-2) not only beat the Titans 61-57 in last week’s Lady Greyhound Classic, the Bookers also caused Lake Taylor to drop out of The Virginian-Pilot’s rankings of South Hampton Roads teams.
Before losing to then-unranked Booker T., Lake Taylor was ranked No. 7.
“We got mad as soon as we saw the paper,” said freshman guard Linda Stepney, who scored a game-high 15 points. “We knew we had to go out and play Titan pressure ball.”
“We thought if we jumped on them right away we’d be OK,” said sophomore guard Breshara Gordon. “We came out strong, got the lead and just kept pressuring them.
“They’ve been on our mind ever since we lost.”
It actually took about half of the first quarter before Lake Taylor got into high gear. The teams were swapping turnovers and were tied at 6-6 when the Titans unleashed their full fury.
Lake Taylor closed out the quarter by scoring the last nine points, then added seven more at the start of the second period for a breathtaking 16-0 run that put the home team up by 22-6.
It only got worse from there. Freshman Jasmine Cuffee banged in three straight 3-pointers and Tashima Newsome added another trey and all of a sudden it was 31-9 with a couple of minutes still to go in the half.
The Titans went on an 8-0 run to start the second half and by that time Booker T. coach Mike Fariss was clearing his bench, with no hope of duplicating last week’s win.
“There goes one difference,” Fariss said after the game, pointing to guard LaTia Henry, who limped by in street clothes. “She’s out for a couple of games with a leg bruise. Lake Taylor is a pressing team and they didn’t mind pressing no matter what the score was.
“At some point, I just started playing everybody.”
Sheymeka Anderson’s 10 points led Booker T., which shot just 24 percent from the floor.
Cuffee and Toia Giggetts had nine points for Lake Taylor. Gordon, Tashima Newsome and Ebony Belmer chipped in with eight. Dominique Short and Marhyah Stephenson each had seven points.
Their revenge complete, the Titans put the loss to Booker T. behind them.
“Tonight we really focused,” said Gordon. “They beat us before, but this was the district game. This is the one that counted.”
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