Brea Castro Gambrell is ready for a tactical change after a disappointing start to the season. Manhattan Center coach Jaywana Bradley has stated multiple times that she is looking for leadership and her senior forward appears ready to provide it.
“Sometimes I stay too relaxed and I try to let other people do it, but I realized I have to do it or nobody else will,” Castro Gambrell said. “I have to wake them up.”
Manhattan Center was alive and well for two quarters against rival Murry Bergtraum, trailing by just 10 at the break. But the Lady Blazers clamped down defensively in the third quarter as the Lady Rams committed costly turnovers before falling 69-45 in both teams’ PSAL Manhattan AA girls basketball opener in Lower Manhattan. It is Manhattan Center’s third straight lopsided loss.
“Sometimes the team is not on the same page and I can blame myself,” said Castro Gambrell, who was benched in a defeat to CHSAA power St. John the Baptist Saturday. “I need to get my team in order.”
She scored 19 points against Bishop Kearney Saturday and 21 versus Bergtraum, but Bradley is looking for more consistency. The coach felt Castro Gambrell was too passive in the first half Wednesday, but asserted herself in the second, attacking the basket more. She was the only player the Lady Blazers, ranked No. 1 in the city by The Post and No. 23 in the country by USA Today, struggled to put a stop to at certain points of the game.
“You ended up with 21 points and you didn’t play hard in the first half,” Bradley said she told Castro Gambrell after the game. “Hello. She can be a prolific scorer the whole game.”
Gambrell isn’t the only one to blame. Manhattan Center (0-3) missed 12 free throws, including four during Bergtraum’s decisive 15-2 run over the third and fourth quarters. It didn’t box out, shot 13-of-50 from the field and threw the ball away all too often. Ashley Gomez scored 21 points and got to the basket at will too many times for Bergtraum (1-0). Michelle Valle added seven points for Manhattan Center.
“We have to find to find ourselves,” Bradley said. “We need Brea to definitely lead, but we need all the rest of the seniors to pick it up to. The bottom line is we need to start making tougher decisions for ourselves.”