By Mike Zummo
When the shooters miss, Kayanna Cauthen is there to clean up the mess.
She did just that for the Bushmen on Thursday, scoring 15 points, mostly off offensive rebounds in the Bushmen’s 61-49 win over the Monroe-Woodbury Crusaders at Pine Bush High School.
“I think this feels good; it’s a league game,” Cauthen said. “Obviously, we need this for our record, and Monroe has been a big competitor in the past, so it feels good to definitely put this out and keep continuing forward.
It was a little rocky in the beginning, but we picked our stuff up together.”
Cauthen did most of her damage early, scoring eight of her points in the first quarter. They were eight of the Bushmen’s first nine points, and three of those baskets came off offensive rebounds.
“I just tried to box out and look for everything,” Cauthen said. “It’s just mostly what I was trained to do, just put it back up, and I just got used to it. It’s kind of what I do best.”
Pine Bush coach Michelle Bouffard was waiting for Cauthen to have a game like this.
“Kayanna does a lot in the middle that people don’t notice,” Bouffard said. “She’s not going to do the fancy moves, but what she does do makes a huge difference. She’s getting rebounds and she’s putting herself in a good spot. She does exactly what I want her to do, and she does it well.”
The Bushmen’s usual engines – Leticia Watson and Ketura Rutty – got going in the second half. Watson scored 11 of her 14 points in the second half and Rutty finished with 11.
“It was not our game,” Bouffard said. “It was too fast paced. They weren’t controlling the ball. There was no ball movement on offense. They were just trying to drive in the middle. The one time or twice they did have ball movement, we found the open player. They have to be patient on offense.”
The Bushmen led by eight points after the first and second quarters, and the Crusaders cut it down to seven points in the third.
Then a free throw with about 5:35 to go in the game cut the lead to 43-40.
But there was no panic.
“I trust my team,” Cauthen said. “I knew we could get it together. I know through adversity; we work well together. We’ve been playing with each other for a while, so I know that when times get tough, we’re not going to fall and crumble.”
Camryn Kodgis started the Bushmen back up, knocking down a 3-pointer to give the Bushmen a 6-point lead. Atter Monroe-Woodbury’s Brianna Taveras knocked down a free throw, Pine Bush went on a 6-0 run to take an 11-point lead.
The Bushmen are 3-0 so far with two Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association Division I wins, heading into the holiday break. They’ll compete in the Wallkill Holiday tournament on Saturday and Monday.
“We’re fine,” Bouffard said. “There’s a lot that we have to work on, but it’s OK because in a game like that, I’d rather win by that than lose and have that going into the break. I’ll take it. We’re going to keep pushing.”