Hot shooting lifts Coronado girls past Liberty to state — PHOTOS
Ronald Childress called his first year as the Coronado girls basketball coach a “grind.”
He said he knew it was going to take a while for his players to believe in him and to believe in each other.
But already, he’s seeing the fruits of his labor.
No. 3-seeded Coronado defeated No. 2 Liberty 64-46 on Wednesday night in a Class 5A Southern League semifinal at Liberty. With the win, the Cougars have qualified for the 5A state tournament next week.
“For us in the first year, we won 20 games and we’re going to state in year one — it’s wonderful,” Childress said. “It’s a dream come true. It’s something that these girls can live with forever. That’s what gives me joy.”
Coronado junior guard Jalia Childress led the Cougars (20-7) with 21 points. Senior point guard Kaylee Walters scored 18 points, and senior forward Ashtyn Wick added 12. The Cougars made nine 3-pointers, all in the first three quarters, to build their lead.
“They wanted it. The girls wanted to win this game,” Childress said. “I told them I knew we could do it. I believed we could do it. At times we haven’t really shown this year that we really believed in what we could do. Now, I think they’re believers.”
Liberty (18-10) attacked the paint inside with senior forwards Ali’a Matavao and Adrienne Puletasi getting second-chance points and rebounds. Then Coronado started finding its shot.
The Cougars made five consecutive 3-pointers over four minutes in the first half. Three of those came at the start of the second quarter as the Cougars went on a 12-0 run to lead 24-12 early in the second.
“It was super important to get that lead and to kind of get (Liberty) a little shaky,” Walters said. “We came out and we were hitting shots. We came out knowing that we had had to let (Liberty) know that we were here.”
Coronado hit seven first-half 3-pointers, five in the second quarter, and led 36-26 at halftime. Matavao and Puletasi each scored 10 points in the first half, but were kept quiet most of the second half as the Cougars’ lead grew.
“We had to box out because (Liberty has) three bigs that rebound the ball really well,” Walters said. “We knew we had to stop them. When we came out with the defense we ran, we knew we had to box out and really close in on the games when they would drive.”
Liberty handed Coronado a 70-57 loss Jan. 19. Walters said after watching the tape of that home loss, the players knew they had to play together to pull off the upset.
“We didn’t play well as a team the first time,” Walters said. “This time, we knew we had to come out offensively and defensively, and just play better together. We came out and we did that tonight and got the win.”
Matavao finished with 19 points, and Puletasi added 14.
Coronado will play at No. 1 Centennial — an 85-23 winner over No. 4 Faith Lutheran in the other semifinal — at 6:30 p.m. Friday for the 5A Southern League championship.
The Cougars lost at Centennial 60-43 on Jan. 24 and were one of only two local teams, along with Liberty, to be within 20 points of the reigning seven-time champion Bulldogs.
“We just need to do what we did tonight — play together, work hard and show up,” Childress said.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on Twitter.