Robinson girls’ seek to repeat as champs

Robinson High’s girls’ basketball team won another title this year, but with half of last year’s championship team.

With its win over Mount Pleasant on Feb. 12, the Bulldogs secured at least a share of their second straight South Piedmont 3A Conference title. Robinson (16-5 overall, 12-0 conference) will defend it’s 2012 league tournament championship starting on Feb. 18.

Last season, the Bulldogs had six seniors when they won their first conference title with Lin Smithson as coach. Three of the seniors, sometimes four, were starters.

With only two players who had been part of last year’s rotation returning, Robinson opened this season with uncertainty. Senior guard Madison Fulford and sophomore forward Kelsi Mahoney were joined by a roster of mostly unproven players.

“When you graduate six seniors, you just don’t know,” Smithson said. “I felt like it would take us a while to get started but I was feeling pretty confident.”

Like the rest of the SPC teams, Robinson struggled through its opening nonconference schedule. Starting another senior, forward Rachel Cook, and sophomore guards, Sydni Bickford and Amaya Scott, the Bulldogs lost three of their first five games before facing conference rival Kannapolis Brown on Dec. 18.

Victories over the Wonders and Concord made Robinson an early conference leader and gave the Bulldogs some confidence entering the East Lincoln Winter Jam tournament over Christmas break.

After an opening round win over Mooresville, a solid North Mecklenburg team handled Robinson easily, 70-54. It was a wake-up call for the Bulldogs.

“We were in the locker room afterwards, and I said to the team, ‘It’s terrible to lose, but we needed a loss.’ We needed to know that we weren’t unbeatable, that we could easily be stopped,” Cook said.

Robinson rebounded with a 75-36 win over East Gaston in the third place consolation game, a victory that started a winning streak. Until a 41-40 loss to Porter Ridge on Feb. 6, the Bulldogs had won nine games in a row.

Suddenly, the camaraderie the Bulldogs tried to nurture in the pre-season was becoming evident. Led by Cook and Fulford, the team regularly congregated on Sundays to play pick-up games at the West Cabarrus YMCA.

Since the start of the season, every member of the team has made it a game-day ritual to gather for meals. Their game-time rallying cry has become “BDP”, short for “Bulldog Pride.”

Cook has teamed with Mahoney to form the best front court in the conference. Mahoney, who makes 36 percent of her three-pointers, is averaging 11.4 points and 10.6 rebounds per game. Cook, who takes pride in her consistent defense, averages 9.4 points and 8.1 rebounds.

Sharp-shooting Sydni Bickford and the ball-distributing Amaya Scott anchor the backcourt along with Fulford.

“I utilize my speed by running around a lot and tiring out the defense,” said Fulford, who has missed five games with an injury.

Key reserves are 6-foot-3 forward Ashley Bearden, speedy guard Brittany Vaughters, both sophomores, junior swing player Melanie Zeiler, and seniors Cassidy Franklin (guard) and Tori Neale (guard/forward).

“This is a really fun team to coach,” Smithson said. “They are a team with a lot of talent. They work really, really hard. We started off shaky and we’ve had to get things together. The girls get along and like each other a lot.”