Rock Bridge’s defense gave Capital City trouble all night.
The Bruins blocked eight shots, tipped away 13 steals and held Capital City to 12.8 percent shooting on the way to a 54-15 Central Missouri Activities Conference girls basketball win Thursday at Capital City High School.
Kyrah Brodie, Rock Bridge’s 6-foot-4 forward who signed with Pepperdine, helped control the paint for the Bruins, blocking six shots and forcing the Lady Cavaliers to change from their regular offensive strategy of getting most of their points in the paint.
“Offensively, I knew we were going to have a tough time,” Capital City coach Ashley Agee said. “Struggling scoring. We score probably 85 percent of our points in the paint most nights, so that adjustment for the girls to get the green light to shoot 3s, that’s not usually our game plan.”
That defense helped Rock Bridge build runs of at least seven points to start each of the first three quarters.
The Bruins opened the game on a 14-0 run before Jada Anderson used a Natalie Allison assist to hit a short jumper from just outside the right block for Capital City’s first points of the game with 1:33 left in the first quarter.
Anderson hit a free throw for the Lady Cavaliers’ third point, then hit another two after getting an offensive rebound to score all five of Capital City’s first-quarter points.
The Bruins added seven points after Anderson’s first score to lead 21-5 at the end of the first quarter.
Rock Bridge added another nine points before Kambry Pistel hit the Lady Cavaliers’ lone basket of the second quarter when she drove and pulled up for a mid-range jumper with 4:00 left before halftime.
The Bruins went into halftime ahead 34-7.
“I thought we did a great job defensively, they’re a big team,” Agee said. “… That’s what we talked about, just trying to control what we can control and the girls really bought in.”
Brodie scored eight consecutive points for the Bruins spanning the halftime break, for the majority of her 11, then Averi Kroenke hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key, three of her game-high 18 points, off one of Maggie Primus’ game-high four assists to put Rock Bridge up 41-7.
Anderson used an Allison post-entry pass for a layup high off the glass to break the run with 5:08 left in the third.
Capital City had its best offensive quarter, adding an Anderson free throw to cap off her team-high eight points, an Addison Jones mid-range jumper, a Pistel layup off a drive and a Rylea Sanning free throw, sending the Lady Cavaliers into the final eight minutes down 50-15.
With a running clock, Rock Bridge outscored the Lady Cavaliers 4-0 in the final eight minutes.
“You’ve got to move on to the next one,” Agee said. “Go focus on Harrisburg on Saturday, that’s going to be a more competitive game for us. But there was a lot of positives that came out of that. If all you want to pay attention to is the ‘W’ or the ‘L’ then I guess you can pay attention to that. But as coaches, we saw a lot more of the things that we were doing well.”
The Bruins main senior core of Christina Maltsberger — five points and four assists — Kroenke — 18 points, eight rebounds, three blocks — and Brodie — 11 points, five rebounds, five blocks — all sat out the final eight minutes. That core has helped lead the Bruins to an undefeated start, the No. 2 spot in the Class 6 rankings and the No. 23 spot on ESPN’s national rankings.
Anderson added a co-team-high five rebounds for the Lady Cavaliers to complement her team-high eight points, while Sanning brought down five boards.
Pistel had four points and four boards, while Allison brought down four rebounds.
Capital City (6-10, 0-3 CMAC) plays the opening game of the Mid-Missouri Invitational at Harrisburg on Saturday, tipping off against Harrisburg at 11:30 a.m.
Rock Bridge (12-0, 2-0 CMAC) starts the Truman Tournament on Monday.
Rock Bridge beat Capital City 29-6 during Thursday’s two-quarter junior varsity action at Capital City High School.