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Girls Basketball: Sickles Cruises Past Chiefs

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By SCOTT PURKS

Tribune correspondent

Published: January 10, 2009

TAMPA - As much as the Sickles Gryphons struggled in Friday night's first half, they cruised in the second.

That's why the final score - Sickles 54, Chamberlain 28 - is a bit misleading.

In the first half, Chamberlain not only finished with the lead, 24-18, but also often made Sickles look disoriented and sloppy, a fact that had Sickles coach Mark Key pretty irritated heading into the halftime locker room.

"Oh yeah, I got on them real good at halftime," Key said. "I told them very strongly that it was time to wake up."

The Gryphons listened, holding Chamberlain to one point in the third quarter and three in the fourth. On the offensive side, Sickles scored 19 in the third and 17 in the fourth, mostly behind 6-foot-4 sophomore Amber Henson, who sank shots from all over the floor, finishing with a game-high 25 points.

Key said he credited the first-half lapse to the fact Sickles (12-5) was playing its third game in three nights.

"But I have to say after we woke up, we played well," Key said. "I was proud of the way we picked it back up in the second half."

Chamberlain, meantime, walked away with the frustration of losing its third straight game, all of which it led at halftime.

"I think we lost all those leads because we only go six deep," Chamberlain coach Robert Warren said. "We play an aggressive game. We run and press and it can be like a track meet, which worked great in the first half. But then I think we got a little tired and Sickles got a few baskets and things got away from us."

Chamberlain (8-9) was led by Arena Houston, who finished with 19 points, which was only two ahead of the Gryphons' second-leading scorer, freshman Bre Crum.

Key said he and the team were looking forward to a weekend break after playing the three games in three days, a span in which Sickles went 2-1, losing first to St. Petersburg 47-43 and then beating Mitchell 63-47.

"Overall I'd say we're in good shape," Key said. "We're getting better all the time. We're getting there."

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