NEW MIAMI — The Cincinnati Christian Schools girls basketball team is setting its sights on a Miami Valley Conference Gray Division championship.
The Cougars took another step towards their goal Wednesday night.
Kaylin Davis scored a game-high 14 points, freshman Alayna Fitzgerald added 11 and Cincinnati Christian pulled away from New Miami for a 46-19 road victory.
“I really feel like we’ve got a chance to win our division,” Cougars fourth-year coach Derrick Byndon said. “But we have our struggles sometimes. We have to stop playing down to the level of our competition. We let little things like uncalled fouls get to us, and we lose our composure. Then it takes us out of our game. That’s what I was a little concerned about today.
“Our execution wasn’t as clean as I would have liked it to be, although I thought we pushed the ball up the floor. We just weren’t making shots.”
CCS (8-2, 6-0 MVC Gray) has won three in a row and eight of its last nine. The Cougars moved their winning streak against the Vikings to 21 games.
“We’ve been working every day in practice to get better as a team, communicating and uplifting each other,” said Davis, a junior forward. “It’s our biggest thing. We’re just in the gym every day.”
Cincinnati Christian moved out to a 13-2 lead after one quarter and led 28-11 at the half.
The Cougars held the Vikings to just eight points in the second half to completely put the game out of reach. Junior Serena Cyprien had seven points for CCS.
New Miami (1-6, 1-4 MVC Gray), which came off a 37-31 win over St. Bernard on Saturday, was led by senior guard Seujhali Cottrell’s 12 points.
Next-play mentality
Davis said the Cougars have been playing with a ‘get the next play’ mentality, which eventually took over after the halftime break.
“We kind of had a talk in the locker room,” Davis said. “We were like, ‘Hey, this is not us.’ We had to start making shots, layups and come out here and work.”
The Cougars adjusted during the final two quarters after committing 13 turnovers in the first half.
“There’s no way we should have that many turnovers in a half, let alone in the entire game,” Byndon said. “We were able to clean things up.”
Young Cougars
Cincinnati Christian only has one senior on the roster, and that’s Rachel Mullins. The starting lineup against New Miami consisted of three juniors, a sophomore and a freshman.
“We’re a young team,” Byndon said. “We’re taking our lumps. We’re blending well, and it makes things better because I have five players out of my top six that play AAU ball.”
A Viking Voice
New Miami first-year coach Alyssa Rison has recently taken a different approach with her players during practices.
She’s letting the Vikings call some of the shots in order to help them build confidence on the court.
“I kind of let them have a voice, too,” Rison said. “I’ll always want them to tell me what they think. We’ll even talk at school because I’m also here, so it’s a little easier for me to connect with them then as well. We really try to connect with them on what we need to work on as a team.
“But they are continually wanting to move the ball a lot more and talk a lot more, and they’re trusting each other. I’ve seen them drive to the basket more now than they have in the past.”
On the defense
New Miami has been playing off its defense, according to Rison, which has led to more shots at the basket.
“I think our defense is fantastic. We have great defense,” Rison said. “We’re working on shooting and following the shot, kind of thing. It’s what I’d like to call basic skills and boxing out — the simple things.
“We do a half-court press, which I really enjoy watching them do. We did a full-court against St. Bernard. I think the girls needed that just so they can know that they can do it.”
Up next
Cincinnati Christian doesn’t play again until its big conference matchup at home against Seven Hills on Jan. 6, 2025.
New Miami quickly gets back to action on Thursday at SCPA.
