Willingboro 49, Timber Creek 39
Today was my first game coverage in like six days, so it almost felt like the start of the season all over again especially because I was seeing Willingboro, just like opening night. The Chimeras won ugly again, this time hounding Timber Creek into a state of confusion. The Chargers are one solid guard away from being a very good team, but they looked scattered and lost at times tonight. Some of that was due to the quickness of the Boro guards. Erin Floyd has the potential to be a great, great player, and I think she was the best on the floor today, but she needs some room to work out there and she wasn't getting it. I know Washington Township's gym is close, which I like, but it actually looked smaller because TC had no outside threat. That's where Barb Wasko's preseason defection really kills. Lindsay Steele is a nice player who does a lot of good things, and she had a good game today, but she doesn't command enough defensive respect to give Floyd room to operate at full capacity when TC is facing a team that's as quick on help defense as Boro. The Chimeras could collapse on her every time she got the ball and still get to the kickout because they knew the 3 would not hurt them.
There was a bizarre sequence of events surrounding halftime. The game was very physical, and Floyd was having trouble connecting in the post. In the last minute of the second quarter, she drove low, missed, got and offensive board, missed again, got another offensive board and missed out of bounds. All the while, she was getting banged in the body by Willingboro. In a boys' game, those fouls don't get called, but even though I'm not sure who a foul might have been on, most officials in a girls' game would blow the whistle in that situation and send Floyd to the line. But TC didn't get the call and Boro got the ball. Floyd was visibly pissed, and related those sentiments on her way back down the floor, drawing a T. The TC bench went ballistic, and the refs came over to converse. An assistant threw one last parting shot as the group was breaking up and the bench got a T as well.
Tiffany Crews made four fouls shots for Willingboro and they seemed all set to play the last 10 seconds of the half when one ref spotted blood on a Willingboro jersey. After a minute, the officials sent three Boro players to the locker room with blood on their jerseys. I wondered aloud if the blood was Floyd's. It certainly could have been, considering the physicality of the play. Had it been, it would have thrown sand in the face of the old saying, "No blood, no foul." As I found out later, the blood came from a cut on Lindsay Steele's knee.
Anyway, when the ref sent the Boro girls off, she made a point of telling them they had to change jerseys "somewhere else, far away from the court." I didn't know why she said it like that until later, when halftime was about to end. Washington Township apparently has laundry machines on the premises or something, because the girls came back with those same jerseys clean. Except that they came back carrying them, ready to put them on as they walked on the court. There's a new rule against disrobing on the playing surface this year, I guess in response to all the demonstrations of a year ago, most notably the Lenape boys player who tore off his shirt in agony after missing a foul shot even though he had one left to take. In any case, the ref called a T on Willingboro for violation of the rule. So Floyd hit one of two foul shots with 8:00 left in the third quarter.
It was pretty strange.
For those who are interested, I ran into Lisa Steele in the hallway after the game. She was of course on hand to watch her little sister play, and she was wearing a walking boot on her left leg. A key member of possibly the greatest class of South Jersey girls' basketball players in history, Steele is in her second year at George Washington, but has struggled mightily with injuries, particularly with that left foot. A stress fracture shelved her for most of last year, and it appears to have returned for more. It's a real shame because Lisa's game is a great fit for the college level. She seemed in good spirits, however, and she's not soured on the game at all. In fact, she seems to have her heart set on a career in coaching after school. After watching her play her junior and senior seasons at Highland, I can attest to her knowledge of the game. I'm not sure I'll ever see a team as fun to watch as that Highland squad her senior year, and it was all because their three guns -- Steele, Zoll and Hemerka -- thought and saw the game at a higher level.
I spent a day off Tuesday down at the Boardwalk Classic in Wildwood, and I'll try to get to some of that stuff in a later post, perhaps even later tonight. For now, there's some other stuff I need to get to. Tomorrow, I'll be at the final of the RV tournament, which appears to be RV-Kingsway. I was surprised to see the Dragons really handed it to Cherokee in the first round, but I confess I was kind of rooting for a Kingsway victory there. It's not because I have anything against Cherokee -- I really liked that team when I saw them play -- but because we've already covered a couple of their games and I'd rather spread the wealth a little bit. I'm not sure what RV's health situation is, but it will obviously be a better game if Cole is on the court.
See you there.
There was a bizarre sequence of events surrounding halftime. The game was very physical, and Floyd was having trouble connecting in the post. In the last minute of the second quarter, she drove low, missed, got and offensive board, missed again, got another offensive board and missed out of bounds. All the while, she was getting banged in the body by Willingboro. In a boys' game, those fouls don't get called, but even though I'm not sure who a foul might have been on, most officials in a girls' game would blow the whistle in that situation and send Floyd to the line. But TC didn't get the call and Boro got the ball. Floyd was visibly pissed, and related those sentiments on her way back down the floor, drawing a T. The TC bench went ballistic, and the refs came over to converse. An assistant threw one last parting shot as the group was breaking up and the bench got a T as well.
Tiffany Crews made four fouls shots for Willingboro and they seemed all set to play the last 10 seconds of the half when one ref spotted blood on a Willingboro jersey. After a minute, the officials sent three Boro players to the locker room with blood on their jerseys. I wondered aloud if the blood was Floyd's. It certainly could have been, considering the physicality of the play. Had it been, it would have thrown sand in the face of the old saying, "No blood, no foul." As I found out later, the blood came from a cut on Lindsay Steele's knee.
Anyway, when the ref sent the Boro girls off, she made a point of telling them they had to change jerseys "somewhere else, far away from the court." I didn't know why she said it like that until later, when halftime was about to end. Washington Township apparently has laundry machines on the premises or something, because the girls came back with those same jerseys clean. Except that they came back carrying them, ready to put them on as they walked on the court. There's a new rule against disrobing on the playing surface this year, I guess in response to all the demonstrations of a year ago, most notably the Lenape boys player who tore off his shirt in agony after missing a foul shot even though he had one left to take. In any case, the ref called a T on Willingboro for violation of the rule. So Floyd hit one of two foul shots with 8:00 left in the third quarter.
It was pretty strange.
For those who are interested, I ran into Lisa Steele in the hallway after the game. She was of course on hand to watch her little sister play, and she was wearing a walking boot on her left leg. A key member of possibly the greatest class of South Jersey girls' basketball players in history, Steele is in her second year at George Washington, but has struggled mightily with injuries, particularly with that left foot. A stress fracture shelved her for most of last year, and it appears to have returned for more. It's a real shame because Lisa's game is a great fit for the college level. She seemed in good spirits, however, and she's not soured on the game at all. In fact, she seems to have her heart set on a career in coaching after school. After watching her play her junior and senior seasons at Highland, I can attest to her knowledge of the game. I'm not sure I'll ever see a team as fun to watch as that Highland squad her senior year, and it was all because their three guns -- Steele, Zoll and Hemerka -- thought and saw the game at a higher level.
I spent a day off Tuesday down at the Boardwalk Classic in Wildwood, and I'll try to get to some of that stuff in a later post, perhaps even later tonight. For now, there's some other stuff I need to get to. Tomorrow, I'll be at the final of the RV tournament, which appears to be RV-Kingsway. I was surprised to see the Dragons really handed it to Cherokee in the first round, but I confess I was kind of rooting for a Kingsway victory there. It's not because I have anything against Cherokee -- I really liked that team when I saw them play -- but because we've already covered a couple of their games and I'd rather spread the wealth a little bit. I'm not sure what RV's health situation is, but it will obviously be a better game if Cole is on the court.
See you there.
posted by SMc. @ 10:04 PM
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