A night after one of its most thrilling wins of the season, Boyd barely broke a sweat to run its winning streak to three games. The Lady Broncos blasted Lancaster Christian 62-17 on the road, improving to 10-7 overall this season.
It was a night of young players making big plays for Boyd as freshman Brooke Kesey matched her career high with 24 points while fellow freshman Katie Bechtel set a new career best with 14 points. Sophomore Macie Bush added 11 points, including a personal 8-0 run in less than a minute during a dominant stretch in the second quarter.
“When we put this one on the schedule, we knew it was going to be a night where we’d get a chance to feature some of our younger players,” said coach Tim Page, who didn’t dress his seniors and played nobody more than 17 minutes. “Lancaster is working hard to grow its program and they’re doing a good job. We had agreed before the season with them to make this a game where we played more of our youth and it worked out well because we got a lot of young kids some valuable reps.”
Kesey, who came off the bench, did all of her damage – which included three rebounds and three blocks – in just 16 minutes of court time. She rampaged through Lancaster in the third quarter, ripping off 14 points during an 18-4 run to start the second half. Kesey watched the final 11 minutes as Boyd continued to push out its lead against the Knights.
Eighth grader Brit Ralph got in on the action in the second half, getting thunderous applause for the Boyd bench when she got a putback during her lengthy run in the fourth quarter.
Bechtel had the exclamation point in both halves, hitting a buzzer beater to send Boyd to halftime ahead 35-10 and nailing a late corner 3-pointer for the game’s final bucket.
Bush was a tone setter for the second straight night in Smyrna. A night after hitting two key 3-pointers in a 55-50 win over Franklin Road Christian that gave the Lady Broncos sole possession of the top spot in the TSIAA South Division, Bush started the scoring against Lancaster Christian with a 3-pointer.
After the Knights briefly got back within single digits, 16-10, early in the second quarter, Bush answered back to put Boyd in command for good. Bush came off a screen to nail a 3-pointer from the left corner, stole a pass at midcourt seconds later for an easy layup and then connected from the same corner on the next possession to make it 24-10. Boyd would extend the run to 19-0 before halftime.
“We talked a lot about making sure to bring energy from the start. It was our last game before Christmas break and we were coming off an emotional win the night before, so it could’ve been a night where we let our guard down, but the team really responded,” said Page. “Once we went to a man defense early in the first quarter, our intensity stepped up and we got the job done.”
Kelly Bush and Anslee McCrary earned starts in the paint and were strong for the Lady Broncos. Kelly finished with six points and five rebounds, while McCrary was a defensive menace with seven rebounds, three blocks and two steals.
Sophomore Zoe Oliver, drawing the start at point guard, finished with five assists and no turnovers as she guided Boyd to its second-highest point total of the season (Boyd scored 66 in a win over Dickson Christian earlier this year).
The Lady Broncos will travel to Florida next week to take part in the Tampa Bay Christmas Invitational. Boyd is scheduled to take on DeLand, Fla. Wednesday at 3:35 p.m. and will face Plant City, Fla. Thursday at noon.
