Published: November 11, 2008 11:18 pm      

Cornish, Hubbard come out sizzling in opener

MILDRED — Chad Walker needed his team to keep working on its offensive sets.

Even with a 35-point lead entering the fourth quarter.

So the Hubbard Lady Jaguars called a halt to their fast break and worked on their passing game in the final eight minutes, at the urging of their coach. That’s the luxury of winning your season opener by a score of 57-15 at Mildred on Tuesday night.

“We just wanted to work more on our passing,” Walker said. “It’s our offense called the ‘passing game.’ Sometimes we got a little anxious. Some of the girls wanted to get their names in the paper.”

One Lady Jaguar who deserved a little press Tuesday was Raven Cornish, who finished with 18 points and eight rebounds, all of which came in the first three quarters.

Cornish dominated in the paint, using her size to shoot over Mildred defenders. She scored 14 points in the first half, six of which came on first-quarter free throws.

“I guess she looks like a game player,” Walker said. “We haven’t seen that in practice.”

Cornish agreed. “I like playing a lot better in games,” she said.

Cornish had plenty of help. Lexi Griffin had nine points, Jordan Henderson had eight and Grace Raley had seven.

And Walker also had a few things to be upset about even if his team was up 31-8 at halftime. Hubbard had 16 fouls in the first half. And even though that total was matched by Mildred in a whistle-happy 16 minutes, Walker was still upset even while telling his players they were headed out for pizza.

“That’s not a good thing,” Walker said.

The Lady Jags broke out to a 10-0 lead, eight of which was scored by Cornish. They had their biggest lead of the first half at 31-8 on two free throws by Griffin with 42 seconds before the halftime.

Among other things to go wrong for Mildred in the first half were 17 missed free throws out of 21 attempts.

“They’re a young team,” Walker said. “They’re just inexperienced. They’re going to be a good team.”

So is Hubbard, which put things on auto-pilot in the second half. During one timeout, Walker told his players to slow down the game and work on their offense.

The Lady Jags just welcomed in Africa Lang and Sara Fletcher from their playoff volleyball team, so the practice time, even in a game like Tuesday’s, is still important.

“They’re going to be key role players,” Walker said. “So we needed to work them in.”