CC 88, Wilson 66

Wow. That's porbably the best I've seen a HS girls' team play since Willingboro in the 02-03 season.

Actually, Crew probably didn't have her best game, but she did hold the solution to the Wilson pressure, and she didn't have to be perfect when everyone else was just money. Ra's hands were great today, and she finished. Matera made great decisions with the ball, Gallagher had one of the most efficient games I've seen her play, and Lane did what she does, which is rebound, pass and defend. They just didn't show Wilson any weaknesses today, which is why I was suprised when Coach Dyer went after the officials after the game.

Maybe I'm now just "the guy who will write about officiating" -- though I don't think it's fair since Pete Shnatz did the same in the Inky last week -- but Mancini's comments seem to have emboldened Dyer. "I'm not afraid to talk about it," he kept saying. "When your team is playing against seven, you have no chance. If they would just let us play defense, then we could play some basketball against anybody. We're not this bad."

And while I agree with him on that last point -- Wilson isn't 22 points inferior to any team in the state, it was just one of those days -- I find it hard to agree with him this time on the officiating. From where I sat, I thought the refs did a decent job, and considering the game's pace, I'd even go so far as to say it was a well-officiated game. Rashidat only went to the line a couple of times, and given her size and skill, she doesn't need the refs' help to dominate the way she did. I know that Coach Dyer will disagree, and maybe he saw things that I didn't see, but in the grand scheme of things I can say with absolute certainty that officiating did not decide the game's result. Catholic was just too good on this particular day, and certain players had off days for Wilson.

Anyway, congratulations to Chrissy Palladino for No. 400, which makes her No. 3 on the active list in the area, as far as I can tell. There were some Dark Ages back there five or six seasons ago, for which we have no stats or concrete results, and that makes things hard when we're trying to figure out the lists of area leaders for scoring and coaching. Basically, we know the record now both belong to Wildwood -- Moni Johnson in career scoring and Dave Troiano in career wins -- but about three or four places in the top 10 are a complete mystery. I do feel safe in saying that, among active coaches, Troiano is obviously No. 1 with over 500, Tom Inzillo from Hammonton is No. 2 with something between 405 and 410, with Palladino closing in with 400 even. The only retired coach I'm sure falls in there is Bill Ulrich, who used to hold the record with 503. It's hard to believe only four coaches in the history of South Jersey GB have 400 or more victories, but the evidence is lacking either way.

As I mentioned a few days ago, the plan was to cover two games today, and I followed through with that plan. I have to go out and let some stress loose right now, but I'll post about the Timber Creek-Shawnee game sometime in the next 12-16 hours. I''l be covering the Holy Spirit-Willingboro game tomorrow evening at the Boro. That should be a lot of fun, especially now that both JSykes AND SPirit's full complement of transfers are all active at the same time. I'll be itnerested to see if Rich and Alleyne can rattle Sykes with pressure, and I can't wait to see if the Johnson-Frazier-Marsh front court combination can stand up to Willingboro's underrated Crews-Ajike duo.