Ashley Bowles is a critical piece of the puzzle for the Miller School’s girls team, but it turns out that even when the senior is out of the picture the Mavericks are a pretty good basketball team.
The Mavericks shut down Western Albemarle’s offense in a rare late season matchup of public and private school teams, rolling to a 37-19 victory.
“We’ve played four games without Ashley now and it seems like each time out we come together a little bit more,” said Miller coach James Braxton. “This is definitely going to pay off for us in the long run because we’ll be able to play if she gets in foul trouble or something happens.”
With Bowles sick and out of the lineup, the Mavericks, ranked No. 1 in VISAA Division III, become a much more inside-out oriented squad, leaning on the constantly improving Ashleigh Claybrooks and Winthrop-commitment Kelsey Corcoran. Claybrooks, just a night after pouring a team-high 18 against Chatham Hall in a blowout, Claybrooks scored 11 to lead the Mavericks over the Warriors.
“Confidence—that’s what we’ve been talking about,” Braxton said. “It’s just confidence. We changed some things with her game at the beginning of the year so we knew it was going to be a learning curve. But she’s getting it together.”
Corcoran had a big night defensively, altering shots on a regular basis against a Western team that had the height to matchup with Miller but couldn’t solve the Mavericks’ zone pressure. Western turnovers then opened the door to Miller’s transition game, where speedy point guard Taylor Sandridge excels. Sandridge did a solid job of pushing the ball up court and getting in small forward Whitney Martin’s hands. The tandem combined for 17 points in the win.
The lone bright spot for Western Albemarle was a gutty, fearless effort from Kathryn Crickenberger, particularly in the third quarter when she scored all of her team-high eight points. Western managed just six total field goals on the night in a dismal offensive performance.
“Miller took it to us, they were definitely the better team today and really from beginning to end,” said Western coach Kris Wright. “We never could get our offense going.”
Western faces Fluvanna County on the road Friday while Miller hosts Williamsburg Christian Saturday night.
