Deptford 44, Cumberland 39
I have to admit I was very suprised when Deptford started playing catch witha couple minutes left in the first half. The Spartans were up about 20 and in total control, but my first thought was, "Isn't this a little early?"
I was sitting on the Cumberland side of the stands (not because I was rooting for the Colts but because the cheerleaders' endless chanting in monotonous enough from far away) and the folks around me were livid, screaming that what Deptford was doing was cowardly and unfair, bordering on cheating. I couldn't disagree more with that, but I did think it was ill-advised. Stalling and holding the ball is a great way to drive a trailing team out of its head, or force it out of a zone defense. Though it more or less worked in those two capacities for Deptford tonight, it also sort of shut down many of the things the Spartans were doing so well early on. Cumberland started coming back, Keyona Grant played incredible with four fouls in the second half, and Parsiphany Pender started to find her groove. And when Deptford needed to started that O back up to respond, it stalled. The lucky thing for Coach Pitito and Deptford is that they still got out of there with a win and a lesson learned.
Kristina Cox played very well in the first half, especially considering the Colts were threw a box-and-one at her. I was pretty impressed with Miranda Paynter, and Jazmin Clement was like a magnet for rebounds. Cox is obviously very mentally strong, but the rest of the team can and likely will improve in that area. Once Cumberland started punching, most of the team went into a kind of shell.
I was perplexed by Pender in the first half, because I knew she had a rep as a scorer and yet she seemed to be out of sync. Turns out she's a terror from 15 feet in, a wizard at getting to the hoop in traffic. But I'm guessing she's not known as a shooter since Deptford left her completely alone on the perimeter. I am talking ALONE, nobody within 10 feet when she's standing on the 3-point line, and she didn't pull the trigger. If she could add the trey as a weapon, she'd be so much more effective.
A our-foul first-half meltdown aside, I was extremely impressed with Grant. She had like eight steals and 11 boards despite missing more than a quarter with the foul trouble. She's definitely one of the quickest players, if not the quickest, that I've seen so far this year. As she gets stronger, she'll start finishing at the hoop and her quickness will be even more of a weapon. She saw at least three or four layups roll off the rim tonight, including one at the thrid-quarter buzzer that could have ended up being huge.
In other news, I had to laugh when I saw some of the area scores, one in particular. A couple of days ago, I asked one Olympic American assistant coach who the division favorite was and the coach said something like, "You're not going to want to hear it, but it's probably Lenape." I'm not sure why I wouldn't want to hear that, unless it's because I declined to rank the Indians above Washington Township or Cherry Hill East, but I still had a little chuckle when I walked in to find that Lenape had lost to Pennsauken in overtime. I think the buzzing bees have overlooked those other Indians, who have one of the division's top players in Elise Graham.
Other stuff that happened: CC survived another close game, this time at Paul vI without even a single point from Matera. I wonder how much of this is the fact that the Irish have a target on their backs in every game, and how much is them struggling with chemistry. We'll see when they head down to Wildwood to play Archbishop Ryan or St. John Villa. Also, Wildwood beat Salem. Perhaps the Warriors are back in the Trico Classic mix.
Well, tomorrow is an off day from basketball for me, the first one since last Thursday. I'll probably try to post something sometime during the day, as there is other stuff to talk about, including an interesting story out of Trenton that GF alerted me to. I'll be at Heights for the Sterling game on Thursday.
I was sitting on the Cumberland side of the stands (not because I was rooting for the Colts but because the cheerleaders' endless chanting in monotonous enough from far away) and the folks around me were livid, screaming that what Deptford was doing was cowardly and unfair, bordering on cheating. I couldn't disagree more with that, but I did think it was ill-advised. Stalling and holding the ball is a great way to drive a trailing team out of its head, or force it out of a zone defense. Though it more or less worked in those two capacities for Deptford tonight, it also sort of shut down many of the things the Spartans were doing so well early on. Cumberland started coming back, Keyona Grant played incredible with four fouls in the second half, and Parsiphany Pender started to find her groove. And when Deptford needed to started that O back up to respond, it stalled. The lucky thing for Coach Pitito and Deptford is that they still got out of there with a win and a lesson learned.
Kristina Cox played very well in the first half, especially considering the Colts were threw a box-and-one at her. I was pretty impressed with Miranda Paynter, and Jazmin Clement was like a magnet for rebounds. Cox is obviously very mentally strong, but the rest of the team can and likely will improve in that area. Once Cumberland started punching, most of the team went into a kind of shell.
I was perplexed by Pender in the first half, because I knew she had a rep as a scorer and yet she seemed to be out of sync. Turns out she's a terror from 15 feet in, a wizard at getting to the hoop in traffic. But I'm guessing she's not known as a shooter since Deptford left her completely alone on the perimeter. I am talking ALONE, nobody within 10 feet when she's standing on the 3-point line, and she didn't pull the trigger. If she could add the trey as a weapon, she'd be so much more effective.
A our-foul first-half meltdown aside, I was extremely impressed with Grant. She had like eight steals and 11 boards despite missing more than a quarter with the foul trouble. She's definitely one of the quickest players, if not the quickest, that I've seen so far this year. As she gets stronger, she'll start finishing at the hoop and her quickness will be even more of a weapon. She saw at least three or four layups roll off the rim tonight, including one at the thrid-quarter buzzer that could have ended up being huge.
In other news, I had to laugh when I saw some of the area scores, one in particular. A couple of days ago, I asked one Olympic American assistant coach who the division favorite was and the coach said something like, "You're not going to want to hear it, but it's probably Lenape." I'm not sure why I wouldn't want to hear that, unless it's because I declined to rank the Indians above Washington Township or Cherry Hill East, but I still had a little chuckle when I walked in to find that Lenape had lost to Pennsauken in overtime. I think the buzzing bees have overlooked those other Indians, who have one of the division's top players in Elise Graham.
Other stuff that happened: CC survived another close game, this time at Paul vI without even a single point from Matera. I wonder how much of this is the fact that the Irish have a target on their backs in every game, and how much is them struggling with chemistry. We'll see when they head down to Wildwood to play Archbishop Ryan or St. John Villa. Also, Wildwood beat Salem. Perhaps the Warriors are back in the Trico Classic mix.
Well, tomorrow is an off day from basketball for me, the first one since last Thursday. I'll probably try to post something sometime during the day, as there is other stuff to talk about, including an interesting story out of Trenton that GF alerted me to. I'll be at Heights for the Sterling game on Thursday.
posted by SMc. @ 11:13 PM
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