Alexus Quaadman’s big night helps Spring Valley knock off Liberty
Spring Valley’s Alexus Quaadman wasn’t the most highly touted frontcourt player in her team’s matchup with Liberty on Monday.
But the junior certainly was the most efficient.
Quaadman had 13 points on 6-for-7 shooting and added 19 rebounds and six blocked shots to help the second-ranked Grizzlies to a 60-47 home win over the third-ranked Patriots.
“She’s kind of a sleeper, and she is a Division I athlete,” Spring Valley coach Billy Hemberger said. “The mindset that she has, the courage … and she does so many things outside of those stats. They don’t drive on us the way that they want to. She played huge for us.”
Liberty forward Dre’una Edwards, who has signed with Utah, certainly gets more attention than Quaadman, and she actually outscored and outrebounded her, finishing with 20 points and 21 boards. But Edwards was just 7-for-25 from the field.
“I’m not scared of her or anybody,” Quaadman said. “But it’s always good for me to have a challenge.”
The Grizzlies (21-2) struggled to score in the first half as Liberty (23-2) played a box-and-one on star guard Essence Booker. But Spring Valley got going in the third quarter thanks to senior Kayla Harris, who scored 11 of her team-high 19 points in the period.
Harris had seven points as the Grizzlies used an 11-0 run to start the second half, pushing their lead to 33-18.
“We struggled to score initially,” Hemberger said. “It was a grind of a game, but we got it.”
One constant for Spring Valley was it’s defense. The Grizzlies limited Liberty to 15-for-68 shooting (22.1 percent).
“We can play up-tempo, we can play slow, but most importantly we play really good defense,” Hemberger said. “Defensive effort, that’s been our focal point, and it paid off tonight.”
Booker added 13 points, and Harris had eight rebounds for Spring Valley.
Rae Burrell added 10 points and five blocked shots for Liberty.
Contact prep sports editor Damon Seiters at dseiters@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4587. Follow @DamonSeiters on Twitter.
Monday's highlights
Boys
— Brian Washington had 14 points and 22 rebounds to power Cimarron-Memorial to an 88-72 home victory over Silverado.
— Liberty's Cameron Burist led the Patriots with 19 points as they rolled past Spring Valley on the road 82-56.
Girls
— Kyndal Ricks scored 25 points, including the 1,000th of her career, to lead Rancho to a 39-34 home victory against Mojave.
— Cimarron-Memorial's Chyna Torrence had 16 points and 11 rebounds in the Spartans' 61-18 home rout of Silverado.
