Lady Redhawks bombard Biggs

One day after everything seemed to go wrong, everything went right for the Colusa High girls basketball team and the RedHawks beat visiting Biggs 51-26 on Thursday in the Mid-Valley League opener for both teams.

The RedHawks had the hot hand at the start of the game, making three of their first four shots — all 3-pointers.

Senior guard Savannah Miller opened the game with a wide-open 3-pointer from the corner, then Mattie Myers stole the ball and pushed it up court for a quick pull-up three by Teal Stacey. Myers then followed suit with a long-range shot of her own for a 9-0 lead.

"We were shooting really well and we had really good defense to start out. Last night we were a little rocky on our defense so tonight we came out pretty strong," Miller said.

Colusa (9-7, 1-0 MVL) bounced back from a 62-36 defeat at the hands of Gridley, a game in which the RedHawks struggled mightily, against a Biggs (7-8, 0-1 MVL) team riding a four-game win streak.

Miller made three shots from behind the 3-point arc and finished with 11 points, while senior center Emily Mobley controlled the paint with a game-high 14 points, 17 rebounds and three steals.

By the end of the first quarter, the RedHawks led 16-2, and continued to play well in the second quarter. Only the hot hand of Biggs' star player Darci Roles kept the Wolverines in the game. Roles made three long 3-pointers at the start of the second quarter - with a hand in her face for two of them - to cut the RedHawks' lead to seven, but Colusa adjusted and closed the first half with a 10-5 run.

The Wolverines struggled defending Mobley in the post during the third quarter, and she made them pay by making 4 of 6 from the free-throw line. As a team, the RedHawks shot 6 of 9 from the stripe in the third quarter and 14 of 23 for the game.

In the third quarter, Colusa outscored Biggs 15-2 and scored 12 unanswered points between free throws by the Wolverines.

Colusa coach Jerry Davies saw room for improvement despite the score. The RedHawks often put up a quick 3-point shot instead of using their balance on the floor to set up the easy shot.

"We hit some long shots tonight to start off, which is good in our offense to have happen, but you can live and die by it too," Davies said.

"We should be pushing the ball to the rim and just making sure the offense works all the way through by rotating the ball all the way around to the other side, and putting pressure on the defense to move and then get the ball to the post," he said.

The RedHawks certainly have the balance to do so. Paige Townzen scored eight points, grabbed seven rebounds and dished out six assists; Stacey added eight points, five rebounds and three assists; and Myers scored eight points, had three assists and three steals.

Roles led the Wolverines with 12 points.

Colusa hosts Quincy on Tuesday in the second MVL game and travels to Williams on Thursday.

CONTACT Kirk Barron at 458-2121 or kbarron@tcnpress.com.