Leading scorer Dominique Person was sidelined due to a knee injury, but the Charles H. Flowers High School girls’ basketball team held DuVal star point guard Shaunice Carpenter in check and cruised to a victory against the Tigers on Friday night.
The Jaguars improved to 2-1, bouncing back from an ugly 25-point loss in what was expected to be a competitive game at Bowie on Tuesday with an easy 52-30 win Friday in Springdale.
Flowers filled the void left by Person, their senior guard who averaged 14 points in the first two games of the season, with an all-around team effort on offense and pressure defense.
Carpenter, who had been averaging 20 points per game, was forced into turnovers early and often by the aggressive defense of Flowers guards Tiffani Wiles and Raven Yelder and finished with just five points and one field goal. A few of the turnovers led to fast-break layups for Wiles and Yelder.
Flowers coach Patrice Frazier said she was aware of Carpenter’s scoring prowess, but added that her game plan for DuVal didn’t change much.
“I think pretty much that’s our style of play,” said Frazier of the full-court pressure her team applied during much of the game. “We were happy to get some offense from our defense.”
Offensively, Flowers has yet to find a dominant scorer. Friday night, none of the Jaguars’ starters scored in double figures. Forward Cheina Thompson and Wiles each contributed nine points, while Bianca Brown and Yelder each had seven.
Sophomore guard Kyah Proctor led the team in scoring with 10 of the team’s 18 bench points. She was 4 for 6 from the free throw line.
“I just feel like we played really well together as a team,” Proctor said.
And while the Flowers players expressed pride in the fact that their scoring can come from anywhere, Frazier said she is looking for the players who get the most playing time to become more prolific scorers. Frazier said Flowers, a team that scored 92 points in its season-opener against High Point, is hoping to “produce a little more.”
Yelder, who made it to the free throw line a game-high eight times but only made three of the shots, said the team “could have played better.”
DuVal was outscored 19-4 in the first quarter and never was able to make the game competitive.
“We kind of played into Flowers’ hand,” said DuVal coach Keith Devoe. “We had to match their intensity and that’s just something we didn’t do.”
Frazier said she is optimistic that Person will return from her injury after the holidays.
Flowers 52, DuVal 30
DuVal (2-3) 4 11 6 9 – 30
Flowers (2-1) 19 7 14 12 – 52
DuVal: Randi Blaine 9, Shaunice Carpenter 5, Kayla Gregoire 5, Milan Williams 4, Leanna Braxton 3, Christina Chibuoke 2, Falon Turner 2.
Flowers: Kyah Proctor 10, Cheina Thompson 9, Tiffani Wiles 9, Bianca Brown 7, Raven Yelder 7, Leenee Kimbell 5, Chelsea Scarborough 2, Cierra Simms 2.
