LINWOOD — Winners in five of their last six games, the Mainland Mustang girls basketball team kept rolling with a dominant performance Friday.
Mainland Regional High School turned a three-point halftime lead into a nearly 20-point, 52-34 win over Clearview High School on Jan. 23. Junior Sammy Funk led the Mustangs with 15 points and helped fuel their second-half outburst with aggressive defense.
The first half was a tightly contested shootout. Mainland fell behind early thanks to four three-pointers by Clearview, but quickly turned it around. Callie Smith took the first Mustang lead with a three-pointer in transition that set the pace for the rest of the game.
The Mustangs thrived in the third quarter and outscored Clearview 19-3 to blow the game wide open. Funk and Smith created turnovers in the defensive half, which were converted into easy offense for the rest of the team.
Smith scored 11 points but also was credited with six assists and steals. Funk and the rest of the team took advantage of her play.
Mainland head coach Bobby Edmunds attributed the second-half dominance to how the Mustangs played defense and the changes they made at halftime.
“We went from zone to man pressure and were able to get out onto their shooters better,” Edmunds said. “We got after their ball-handlers much easier without trapping after giving up a little too much in the zone pressure. The man pressure helped our girls create turnovers and get easy transition points for themselves.”
Junior Reilly Nagle made her impact in the second half on defense and created “chaos,” as described by Edmunds. She had 6 points and rebounds on the day and added 5 steals to lock down Clearview’s offense.
“Reilly Nagle is just all over the place and she is one of the fun players to coach and fun players to watch,” Edmunds said. “She just does everything for us. She creates chaos on defense, does a bit of rebounding and even has five double-doubles this year at her size, which is incredible.”
Edmunds’s team is now 6-1 in their last seven games, which includes arguably Mainland’s game of the year against Our Lady of Mercy Academy on Jan. 12. On the road against the Villagers, Mainland was down by as many as 30 points before roaring back and winning 58-55 in overtime.
Nagle had her highest-scoring game of the season with 16 points and came within three rebounds of another double-double. Smith and Jade O’Neil each added 14 points to the comeback as the Mustangs continued to show off their ability to take over games at any point.
Like the game against Clearview, the Mustangs outscored the Villagers 19-3 in a quarter and overall had a 45-18 second half.
Mainland will put its 11-5 record on the line against 13-3 Wildwood Catholic on Jan. 28. Wildwood Catholic held off a comeback attempt by Mainland to win their first meeting in Linwood.
The rematch against OLMA will be at the Mustang Corral on Jan. 30. Both games are set to tip off at 5:30 p.m.
“Coming up here this week we have a good Wildwood Catholic team and OLMA — and OLMA is going to be hungry to get back at us after the first game,” Edmunds said. “We are looking forward to next week, obviously, but we know every game on the schedule from here on out is going to be tough and hope to get Brielle Smith back in the lineup soon.”
Smith, Callie’s younger sister, who has the most three-pointers and second most points this season for Mainland, has been sidelined with an injury since the first game against OLMA two weeks ago, but coach Edmunds believes she will be back to reinforce the lineup soon.
– STORY by WILLIAM TRUITT/For the Sentinel
– PHOTOS by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
