Centennial girls dealt rare rout in Holiday Classic semifinals

It's not uncommon to see an 18-point margin after the first quarter of Centennial's girls basketball games.

But there were more than a few stunned looks and slacked jaws at Centennial on Wednesday when it was the Bulldogs who trailed 23-5 after eight minutes.

Dobson (Ariz.) used runs of 12-0 and 11-0 in the first quarter and stunned the Bulldogs 77-58 in the semifinals of the Las Vegas Holiday Classic.

"I think it's called, 'Are we awake yet? Can we get moving?' " Centennial coach Karen Weitz said. "We played only as hard as we needed to play, like kids like to do.

"All of a sudden, a quarter was gone, and it was, 'Oh, we need to play harder.' Then you're playing catch-up the whole time, and against good teams, you'll never come back to beat them."

The Mustangs used a great mix of speed and size to bully Centennial early, stretching the lead to 38-14 midway through the second quarter.

Centennial finally started to show signs of life with a 10-0 run to close within 38-24 at halftime, but the Bulldogs couldn't sustain it.

Dobson's Kameron Knutson, a 6-foot-4-inch handful, gave Centennial fits, scoring 25 points and drawing enough attention to free her teammates.

The Bulldogs, who have no players taller than 5-10, got into deep foul trouble trying to keep the ball from Knutson.

"We don't see a lot of height, so when you do, it's hard for kids to adjust to it," Weitz said.

Johnelle Hannah added 23 points for Dobson.

Courtney Hayes scored 17 points and Shannon Brown 15 for Centennial, which finished 4-1 in the tournament.

"We're just trying to learn and grow," Weitz said. "We just have so much learning and understanding to do. The work ethic was a little better this tournament. Now we have to start getting much, much smarter."

Contact reporter Bartt Davis at bdavis@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5230.