On Saturday, March 9, the Lady Bruins  played Nixa in the state basketball quarterfinals, in Springfield, Mo. Despite a three hour bus ride, the Bruins came out ready to play. The Bruins shut down Nixa in defense throughout the game, out-rebounding them 34-19 and forcing more than 20 turnovers. The Bruins won 50-22 to advance to the final four.
“Nixa has some amazing shooters and so we knew we had to lock them down. We wanted to come out strong and leave everything on the floor,” senior Makenzie Skrabal said. “It was a late game so having to wait all day to play makes it a little tiring. and then riding on a bus for three hours makes it hard to come out with a lot of energy, but we did really well with it all.”
In the first quarter, the Bruins started the game with a lot of vigor. Finding ways to get easy baskets and open shots, the Bruins took a strong lead early in the game. The first quarter ended with the Bruins on top 18-0.
Throughout the game, the RBHS girls kept the floor well-spread on the offensive side, which created many open three pointers Bruin sharpshooters,  Scrabal and sophomore  Sophie Cunningham. At halftime the Bruins were in the lead 24-8. But despite the comfortable lead, the Bruins played even better in the second half.
“In Nixa’s semi-district game, they came back from 17 points down in the fourth quarter,” Skrabal said. “So we just kept telling each other to keep pushing and not let up.”
Cunningham led the team with 19 points, scoring 15 in the second half on 6-for-6 shooting. Junior Chayla Cheadle also added 11 points and sophomore Cierra Porter shut down Nixa on defense with six rebounds and three blocked shots.
“We just kept telling each other to keep pushing and not let up,” Scrabal said. “Nixa has some amazing shooters, and we kenew we had to lock them down. We left everything on the floor.”
By Tyler Dunlap
Additional reporting by Daphne Yu
[nggallery id=275] Photos by Tyler Dunlap