Washington Twp. 59, Cherokee 53, OT

There was a moment, in the middle of this game, when I thought about Laura Sweeney as a first-team All-SJ player, meaning she was one of the top five players in the whole area regardless of grade. I can't say that's where I ended up, but the fact that she was there -- maybe not quite a Cannon or Junaid but right there with absolutely everybody else -- speaks to how well she was playing. Now she and the Chiefs just need to finish.

Now, I've never been all that impressed with Washington Township in the past, considering all the kids in that school and the relative lack of championships and big wins. But it was impossible not to be impressed with the Maids once the fourth quarter began tonight. Off the top of my head, they scored 26 points in the first 24 minutes of play and 33 in the last 12 minutes. Montgomery was money, Kool-Aid was money, so was Petell, Messick, Fort. Everybody had their moment, in fact, and some had a lot of them, and that definitely includes the freshmen, Dana and Shawna Wert. I don't think either one scored tonight, but they affected the game with defense, poise and huge rebounds. Watching Dana and Tara Mangold go eyeball-to-eyeball -- shoving, snarling, biting, the whole bit -- two thirds of the way down the court every time Cherokee inbounded was really a thrill, especially when I imagined doing it for two more seasons after this.

After watching tonight, I realize that the Olympic American has come a long, long way from the wasteland it was back in 2003, my last full GB season. It may not have the star power of the Oly National or the tradition of the Colonial, but it does have one thing over everyone else: there isn't a bad team in it. Case in point, my choices for tonight's coverage were down to the game I attended and Lenape-Pennsauken. In one, the winning team came from behind to force overtime, and the other one was a one-point game. There have been a couple of blowouts, but they have all be surprises.

I've been getting a lot luckier lately with the games I've been picking. I didn't get to see CC-BTech, of course, but my game Thursday -- Salem came back from 16 down to beat Pitman on the road -- was a white knuckler, Spirit-Wilson was very good, so was Cinnaminson-Delran. Williamstown-Kingsway was a comeback upset, and Audubon avoided getting upset at home against Lindenwold, but it took two overtimes. The only clunker I threw in the middle or all that was Wildwood-Pennsville, but that was more about Troiano than the game, of course. In fact, I'd have been dying of nervousness if that had been close since the whole reason I was there was to see Wildwood win.

Anyway, all praise to the basketball gods for the recent good luck, and here's hoping it continues.

I had a nice conversation with Dom Reitano before the game, about a whole bunch of different teams. The best revelation was that the red-headed point guard I saw play for Gloucester is a freshman, and I'm not the only one who thinks she's awesome. I'm hoping to see the Lions play this coming week for real for real. Dom told me her name, which I have of course forgotten, but when I see it I'll remember it.

I noticed there were a few coaches in attendance tonight, which is not a surprise at all. Not only was Township-Cherokee a can't-miss good game, but it was a Friday night. Normally the Friday schedule is very slim pickings, and I would know. I have to pick a Friday game to cover every single week, and sometimes it's extremely difficult to find one that doesn't look dreadful. There are always games that turn out to be good, but a lot of Fridays it's next to impossible to figure out which ones they'll be.

I'm going to end this now, but when I get finished, but there will be another post forthcoming pretty quickly, as in maybe 30 minutes from now. I'm going to put together a list of All-SJ midyear candidates, giving everybody a chance to tell me where I've gone wrong. Should be entertaining.