Smyrna girls soar past CR, 54-39, at ‘The Bob’

Never before has the Smyrna High girls’ basketball team had a season like this one.

Each step of the way, the Smyrna girls have taken the program to unprecedented heights. And they’re not done yet.

During the regular season, the Eagles won the team’s first-ever Northern Division championship.

Then they won a second-round state tournament game and advanced to the Bob Carpenter Center for the first time in school history.

And now, the Eagles are moving on to the state semifinals as one of the final four teams in the state. That, too, is a Smyrna first.

To achieve that latest milestone, the No. 4 seeded Smyrna girls had to defeat division rival Caesar Rodney for the second time in 11 days.

Smyrna and Caesar Rodney were already familiar opponents, having split a pair of games in the regular season. The Riders won 39-34 on Dec. 18, but the Eagles prevailed 74-72 on Feb. 24.

On Saturday, when the two squads met for the third time on the floor of the Bob Carpenter Center, it was Smyrna who came way with a decisive 54-39 victory when it mattered most.

Second-half surge lifts Eagles past CR

In the first half of Saturday’s game, Smyrna wasn’t able to pull away from the tenacious Caesar Rodney squad, who entered the game with a 12-8 record and the tournament’s No. 5 seed.

The Eagles led 15-12 at the end of the first quarter, and extended that lead to seven points early in the second quarter, but the Riders climbed back.

Caesar Rodney took the lead with a three-pointer and held a 26-25 edge heading into the locker room.

The second half was a different story.

With the score knotted at 30-30 early in the third quarter, the Smyrna girls turned up the heat on defense, took advantage of CR turnovers, and made the most of their scoring chances.

The Eagles closed out the quarter on a 12-point run, highlighted by Betnijah Laney’s three pointer and steady points in the paint from 6’4” center Crystal Ross.

Smyrna outscored CR 17-4 in the third quarter.

“Our girls really defended better and rebounded better,” said Smyrna head coach James Kiger on the Eagles’ second-half improvement.

The Riders fired off a flurry of three-point attempts in the fourth quarter, but the shots weren’t falling, and the Eagles were there to grab the rebounds.

With a 15-point lead, the Eagles passed the ball around to run off the final seconds of the game and secure a return trip to the Carpenter Center for the state semifinals.

“Right now I’m taking it all in,” said Kiger after the game. “It’s awesome.”

“I’m ecstatic,” said senior Quontay Hicks. “I’m overly excited.”

To get the win, the Eagles had to overcome the jitters that come along with playing at “The Bob” for the first time.

“I think we were nervous,” said Betnijah Laney after the game. “I know I was.”

Those nerves weren’t very obvious to the observer, though. Laney did a little bit of everything for the Eagles – sinking jump shots, scoring on fast breaks, finding open teammates, pulling in rebounds, and hitting a critical three-pointer in the third quarter. She led the team in scoring with 21 points.

Crystal Ross, who finished with 18 points, gave the Eagles a dominant inside presence.

Ross said the difference in the second half was the team’s composure.

“We played our game, and not theirs,” she said.

Freshman Alexis Fearrington tallied five points in the game. Jasmine Hilliard and Jackie Jenkins scored four points each, and Kaitlin Brown added two.

Saturday’s win over CR was Smyrna’s 20th victory of the season.

The Eagles’ overall record stands at 20-2. After a 5-2 start, the Smyrna girls have won 15 games in a row. The Eagles remain undefeated at 15-0 in the 2010 calendar year.

Eagles to face Cape in state semis on March 10

In the state semifinals, the Smyrna girls will meet No. 9 seed Cape Henlopen (17-5), who pulled off a 43-41 upset over previously undefeated No. 1 seed St. Mark’s in the quarterfinals.

Smyrna’s match up with Cape is scheduled to tip off at 6:30 p.m. on March 10 at the University of Delaware’s Bob Carpenter Center in Newark.

Smyrna beat Cape in both of the teams’ two regular season meetings, but both of those games were close, especially the most recent one. The Eagles won 63-51 at home on Dec. 8 and notched a 49-46 road win at Cape on Feb. 2.

Coach Kiger described the Vikings as a well-coached, very athletic team.

The Smyrna-Cape semifinal assures that a Northern Division team will be playing in the state championship game, scheduled for 7 p.m. on March 12 at “The Bob.”

The other semifinal game will match No. 2 seed Sanford against No. 6 seed Ursuline, who topped No. 3 Dover in the quarterfinals.