Broadneck Girls Bolt To 7-1 Start

Through mid-January last season, Broadneck’s girls basketball team had seven losses. This January, the Bruins are rolling on a seven-game win streak.

After a season-opening loss, the Bruins ripped off seven straight wins heading into last Tuesday’s showdown with Crofton. That was anchored by a 26-point demolition of reigning 4A state champion Glen Burnie, in which they allowed the Gophers just five points through the first 20 minutes of play.

So far on the season, the Bruins have proven they can win in various ways. There was the press-fest against Glen Burnie, where Broadneck led 42-5 midway through the third quarter before cruising to a 52-38 win.

Samantha Miller led the Bruins with 16 points, followed by 15 from London Best and 10 from Mackenzie Wharton.

“We knew that if we could run them, we would get some transition points and layups to tire them out a bit,” Miller said.

There was also a low-scoring game against Severna Park, a 46-38 Broadneck win on December 15 where they needed to simply grind for long stretches. In that game, Ginger Kerdock stepped up and hit two key shots late when Broadneck needed someone to make a momentum-swinging basket.

“I’ve been struggling shooting a lot, and that was the first time (in a while) I had some confidence, so it was really good to help,” Kerdock said.

In between, there have been a lot of highs and few lows. The Bruins squeaked out a three-point win over Old Mill 42-39 on December 8 to start the run and narrowly beat Maryvale Prep 39-35 over the holiday break. There were comfortable victories over Northern (66-32), Southern (42-31) and Eleanor Roosevelt (47-30).

Broadneck sits at 7-1 through January 14, the only loss coming by six points in the season opener to a quality St. Mary’s squad, though it’s still one the Bruins felt like they could have won.

Through eight games, Wharton leads the team in scoring at 13.1 points per game, while Best averages 12.8 and Miller 11.3. Both Wharton and Miller lead the team in rebounds at 5.4 per contest. The team is averaging 30 rebounds, 12 assists and 13 steals per game.

Though the season is not quite halfway done, the Bruins are feeling bullish about where they’re at.

“We have kids who can be gritty. We have kids who can play fast. We have kids who can play finesse. When you have a team that can win in different ways, and with this experience, it’s fun to watch,” said Broadneck coach Juan McKinney. “They’re playing hard. If we play defense at a high level, we’ll be fine, because we can score the ball. We like where we’re at, but there’s a long way still to go.”

Miller was quick to pinpoint the places that this team can continue to improve upon to get where they want to go.

“We knew we could be good, but seeing it come along has been great. We have a lot of pieces,” Miller said. “Sometimes we need to learn how to rein it in, attack the basketball more. Sometimes we find ourselves in foul trouble, and we need to attack the basket and do that to other teams instead.”