Lady Marlins impact ball for win over Ruckel

The Destin Marlin team continued their winning ways on Thursday as they defeated the Ruckel Rams of Niceville 47-20 in girl’s middle school basketball action.

With the win Destin moves to 10-2 overall and 8-2 in the conference.

“Our offense feeds off of our defense,” said Destin Coach Michael Sherwood. “When we are in touch and after the ball … we’re impacting plays by impacting the ball and then that leads to a lot easier transition baskets. It gets our aggressiveness mentality going on offense.”

Leading the offense were Maya Sherwood and Sam Sherer with 18 points each. Mae Genobili tossed in 11 points.

Coach spoke highly of Sherer and her performance the last couple of games.

“She’s learning to be a leader on the floor and control the game,” he said. “The post players are improving as well.

“We still depend on Maya (Sherwood) to score,” he said, which opens up other opportunities for the Marlins.

As for Genobili, “She is probably our most aggressive player. She goes after the ball, she’s tough,” he said.

The Marlins didn’t waste any time impacting the ball on Thursday as they came out firing on all cylinders, outscoring the Rams 15-4. Sherwood struck first with a 3-pointer. Ruckel scored, then it was all Destin as the Marlins created turnovers for quick baskets. In the last couple of minutes, Sherer made a steal before the Rams could get to half court and cashed it in for a layup. Not long after Sherer drilled a 3-pointer.

In the second quarter, Destin continued to press the Rams and again outscored them 10-4. Sherer put up six points, while Genobili and Sherwood each hit for two points. Destin led 25-8 at the half.

The Rams had their biggest quarter of the game in the third putting up eight points. But the Marlins still outscored the Rams with 12 points with Sherwood dumping in eight of those points.

In the fourth and final stanza, Destin managed to pull away for a running clock on the game. After Sherer hit a couple from the foul line, Genobili just grabbed the ball away from a Ram and put it back up for two points. Sherer followed up with a 3-pointer and Sherwood a jump shot for a 46-16 game. Ruckel scored four more points and Destin one.

Up next for Destin is a 6:30 p.m. game Thursday at home against the Bruner Spartans.