by Stephen M. Lewis
DigitalSports Richmond
slewis@digitalsports.com
Cosby coach Rachel Mead and assistant Ryan Abbott had to lock their lips and throw away the key. The information they had couldn’t get out at that moment.
“We both knew once tryouts had started,” Mead said, “that they were already better than last year.”
Cosby’s girls basketball team proved once again its the best in the Central Region, knocking off L.C. Bird 64-37 in the Times-Dispatch Invitational final Monday night at VCU’s Siegel Center.
The Titans look head, shoulders and maybe waist above the competition heading into a new year.
At 7-0, DigitalSports’ No. 1 squad has won every game by double figures, with five of the wins being by 20 or more points, including a 40-point dismantling of a good Deep Run team in the TDIT semifinals.
They beat No. 2 Thomas Dale by 18 points in the TDIT opener. The margins of victory and how dominant Cosby looks doing it has been astounding.
“Maturity, just playing together,” Mead said of the rapid improvement. “They knew where they are on the floor before the other team. It’s really come through from the get-go.”
Leading the way is a terrific junior trio of Jazmin Pitts, Becca Wann and Andrea Bertrand, a group that’s been expected to dominate since their freshman seasons. It seems like domination is here.
Bertrand registered 22 points, eighth in the fourth period, and Wann 17, including two college-length 3-pointers.
Pitts, the U.Va. commit, got in foul trouble, but still tallied 12 points. That’s 51 of Cosby’s 64.
Ellen Katzman had seven, and she’s the only senior on the team.
“Beating Dale, that was a big boost for us this weekend,” Wann said of the win that avenged Cosby’s loss to the Knights in last season’s region quarterfinals. “Once we knew we could beat that good of a team by that big of a deficit, we knew that Bird would still be tough and we’d have to come out with the same intensity that we did against Dale and that’s what we did.”
Bird, ranked third, got an excellent performance from last year’s DS player of the year Ruthanne Doherty. She scored 21 points. The next highest scorer for the Skyhawks was Barbara Sitton at four points.
Skyhawks coach Chevette Waller pulled no punches afterward.
“Right now we’re just trying to gel,” Waller said. “We have three solid players. We have to find the fourth and the fifth.
“We have no shooters right now. If Ruthy’s going to have a bad day…”
Cosby 17 14 19 14 – 64
L.C. Bird 5 6 17 9 – 37
Cosby (7-0): Bertrand 22, Wann 17, Pitts 12, Nichols 5, Kirshner 0, Christian 0, Conyers 1, Foster 0, Lennox 0, Katzman 7, Barnett 0, Horton 0, Gillespie 0. Totals: 23 14-20 64. 3-point goals: Wann 2, Katzman, Nichols.
L.C. Bird (6-2): Doherty 21, Sitton 4, Walton 2, Cruz 2, Miles 0, Robinson 2, Smith 3, Tunstall 3, Rosamont 0. Totals: 13 10-13 37. 3-point goal: Tunstall.
All-tournament team: Becca Wann, Cosby (MVP); Jazmin Pitts, Cosby; Andrea Bertrand, Cosby; Ruthanne Doherty, L.C. Bird; Richelle Price, Atlee
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