After a big 59-42 win yesterday over Skyline, the prevailing thought for Creek Woods girls basketball team was today would be tougher.
It was not.
Nearly the same margin of victory, Creek Wood defeated Muscle Shoals 63-45.
Here is the thing.
Skyline was a team who liked to run.
They boasted just seven players, all of which were undersized, all of which played right into what the Lady Red Hawks wanted to do.
It was a mismatch.
Today was supposed to be different.
Muscle Shoals was bigger, stronger, more physical, and definitely a lot tougher defensively.
The Lady Red Hawks did not receive the memo.
Laura Nichols had fourteen first-half points, all of them coming on physically aggressive dribble drives where she almost always drew a foul.
Coming out of halftime, where the score was just 29-22, it was obvious the Vikings were going to deny Nichols the ball.
Brianna Burgess, after an early third-quarter timeout where Head Coach Russell Wilson challenged her, abused the additional space created by the subtle double team on Nichols and exploded for ten points in the third quarter alone.
By the time we reached the fourth quarter it had become obvious Muscle Shoals had no answer for Burgess or Nichols.
Both ended up with twenty-two points, that is forty-four of the teams sixty-three.
Wednesday Creek Wood will finish up their tournament action at 12:15 taking on Pelham.
We will see if the Lady Panthers can slow down a white-hot Lady Red Hawk attack, my guess is they cannot.
