The Osbourn Park starting lineup is introduced Friday night.
With an offseason that saw a huge shift in the Osbourn Park girl's basketball program, there was plenty to be excited about heading into Friday's home game versus Potomac. The Yellow Jackets would capitalize at home, defeating the Panthers 59 to 17.
Both teams seemed to have a feeling-out process for the first three minutes. Junior Osbourn Park center Alex Brown would find senior guard Angie Yann for a three-pointer to go up 3-0. Potomac would turn the ball over via travel, and then call a timeout on defense.
Sophomore Yellow Jacket Samia Snead would find Brown for a basket of her own to increase the lead to 5-0. Snead would follow up a minute later, finding freshman Janey Salinas for a three-pointer and an 8-1 lead.
Salinas would get in on the defensive action, stealing the ball and connecting with sophomore guard Keyarah Rainey. Rainey would do it herself soon after on a steal and score, extending the lead to 12. Sophomore guard Jayel West would find Angie Yann for her second three-pointer of the quarter, as OP would close out the first quarter up 18-3.
Osbourn Park would open up the second quarter with an Alex Brown basket via Angie Yann assist, followed by Potomac answering with their first basket of the night at the 5:18 mark. The Yellow Jackets defense was stifling all night long, leading to 19 steals.
Alex Brown (left) lifted up her team Friday night with 12 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks and 1 steal.
Alex Brown's first block of the night led to a Keyarah Rainey layup and a 24-5 lead for OP. Brown finished the night with a double-double: 12 points, 10 rebounds (6 offensive), 3 assists, 2 blocks, and 1 steal. I spoke to her afterwards.
"I felt confident. I’d been working really hard in practice so I felt confident in my abilities. We played really well at times. We have a lot to work on still. Plenty of opportunities with layups, free throws and on defense. It’s the beginning of the season. We’re still figuring out our offense and growing."
A steal by sophomore guard Jaelyn Gorham would lead to an Alex Brown offensive rebound and putback, as OP went up 30-5. Gorham was aggressive on defense all night, accounting for 4 steals.
With seconds left in the half, freshman guard Peyton Walters nearly ran out of time before putting up a long two (inches inside the three-point line) that went in as time expired on the half. Osbourn Park led 32-5.
The third quarter saw no let-up in OP's defense, led by Keyarah Rainey. The talented guard would account for 7 of her game-high 18 points in the quarter- scoring & assisting on 5 out of the team's 6 baskets. Rainey finished the game with 18 points on 8-11 shooting, 5 steals, 4 rebounds and 2 assists.
Sophomore guard Keyarah Rainey did it all Friday night, leading the Yellow Jackets with 18 points and 5 steals.
I caught up with her afterwards.
"Seeing us start off slow, I realized we needed to pick it up and bring up the energy of the team."
Osbourn Park would close out the game by outscoring Potomac 12-4 in the fourth quarter. Despite the big win, Yellow Jackets head coach Chrissy Kelly saw room for improvement.
"Like I said before, it’s not talent- it’s the little things. When you jump ahead of those and get greedy- you become undisciplined. Even with a big difference in the score, you’re still responsible on the little things. As the season goes on, if you’re only practicing high risk, undisciplined- it’s going to wear on you and be ineffective. They’re young. It’s going to come down to coaching. I know they’re hungry and they want it. They play very hard- but they need to play hard and smart."
After the game when the crowd had left, Kelly met with former assistant coach- now Potomac head coach- Quiana Kizer and embraced in a hug.
"I miss her, and I'm ready for her to come back," she said with a laugh. Kelly even admitted she had to adjust mid-game to the fact Kizer was on the other side.
"I looked for her on the bench at one point when I was curious about our offensive rebounds."
Osbourn Park gets to celebrate the win over the weekend, but a match-up versus West Potomac (0-2) awaits the team Tuesday night at home at 7:30 pm.
For more on the Osbourn Park girls basketball, follow them on Twitter @OPHSWBB and on Instagram @OPHSWBB.
Get to the buzz-ness
- OP shot 23-55 (42%) and 4-18 from three-point land (22%)
- Both teams combined for 34 turnovers: Potomac- 19, OP- 15
- Osbourn Park went 9-15 at the charity stripe (60%)
- Peyton Walters finished the night with 8 points, 4 rebounds (3 offensive) with 1 steal
- Angie Yann was 2-3 from behind the arc, finishing with 6 points, 1 assist and 1 steal
