In terms of a coming-out party, Sand Creek freshman Conner Proctor picked a heck of a time to have hers. The host Scorpions entered the second quarter of Saturday’s round of 16 game against Mead leading 13-11. That’s when Proctor came off the bench and posted 11 points on the Mavericks – nine of them coming from 3-point range – to pad that lead and pace the Scorpions to a 65-48 win.

“I felt really good coming off the bench today,” Proctor said. “It was a great experience just to play in a playoff game my freshman year. I’m grateful to have teammates who will pass me the ball and trust me with the ball.”

At the start of the game, Mead center Kari Lozinski was doing a great job of disrupting her counterpart Liah Davis. Davis was scoring more than 15 points per game coming into Saturday’s game, but was held to six in the first half.

If Sand Creek was going to advance to the quarterfinals, it was going to have to find an offensive spark elsewhere, and that’s where the freshman came in.

“We didn’t anticipate that,” Mead coach Mike Ward said. “We saw film on her and we knew she could shoot a little bit, but I didn’t think she would come out and shoot it that well.”

Thanks to Proctor, the Scorpions increased their lead to 33-21 at halftime. After making a few adjustments in the locker room, Davis was able to get more involved in the offense, giving the Mavericks no chance of recovering from their deficit.

The final result would end up looking very much like last year’s playoff game where Sand Creek came away with a 66-43 win over the Mavericks.

“Mead has some history here so we were happy we were able to pull away a little in the third and keep that buffer until the end of the game,” Scorpions coach Frank Haist said. “I was proud of the girls, they had to be resilient and hold off some of those advances from Mead and they did that.”

Davis and Proctor both finished with a game-high 19 points for the Scorpions. They also got a big boost from guard Oliana Squires, who finished with 17 points.

Sand Creek will travel to D’Evelyn on Friday to take on the Jaguars, who are the top seed in the region.

“I hate to sound cliché but I’m trying to take this one game at time,” Haist said. “We have a motto that we have four or five practice days to get better and only one day to prove it, so that’s what we have to look forward to for next weekend.”

Air Force guard Zach Kocur tries to pass around the defense of Utah State forward David Collette, left, and guard JoJo McGlaston during the first half Saturday, Feb. 27, 2015, at Clune Arena on the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)

CHRISTIAN MURDOCK, THE GAZETTE