CH East 44, Pennsauken 35
Tons of stuff to get to, so I'll dispense with the game quickly. This was actually my first time seeing Ivy Abiona play a whole game, and I have to say I'm with GW: she's got a ton of potential. My feelings were lukewarm until the fourth quarter, when she just decided to take over for a stretch. Then she broke the Pennsauken press with the dribble andthat was it. I'm an Abiona fan. Just seeing a strong, 6-2 girl make those moves with her head up, looking to make a play, was worth the price of admission.
As I suspected, there was apparently some internal CH East turmoil behind the absence of Abiona and Britney Vespe from the Paul VI thrashing. I'm so glad I didn't cover that game, because I kind of wanted to. I'm still not certain what the exact problems were, but Coach Keyack assured me that all is solved now, and the Cougars are moving forward. It took them a while to translate that assurance to the court, but there were certainly flashes of the team they could be. Coach Keyack and I talked about the possibility of some kind of post-cutoff letdown, with the division sewn up and the SJ Group 4 No. 2 seed secure. It's understandable, but certainly not ideal.
A couple of years ago, the Rancocas Valley boys soccer team suddenly caught fire in the second half of the season and went all the way to a state title, and both the players and the coaches attributed it to an unmatched level of discipline that they adopted midstream. The called it "military disciple" and they took it all the way, with old school pre-game calisthenics, even lining their bags up in numerical order. But they all said it wouldn't have worked without the first half of the season's laxity and frivolity. The lesson here being that a team can't expect to play on the edge every day, and there's an art to getting by on 85 percent. The Cougars practiced that art today, but on the heels of the shellacking at the hands of Paul VI, I'm not sure it was exactly what the East coaches were looking for.
Pennsauken was very game today, even though Elise Graham was not only slightly overmatched by Abiona but hurting bad from a tailbone injury. Coach Ciociola said this was her first game back after missing 10, and I didn't realize how much discomfort she was in until I saw her after the game, and she could barely get around. The girls that really impressed, though, was Ashley Thompson. I could see that she's a little raw, but she was the kind of raw that made me think she was a lot rawer not too long ago. Though she clearly showed that she could shoot, steal, handle, rebound, pass and defend, it was her decision-making that got me. For a raw player, she made very, very few mistakes today. I'm not saying she played a perfect game, but the Indians showed a lot of patience in the halfcourt-set, and the times that she pushed the pace were the right times. It didn't make for the insane, breakneck intensity that accompanies many HS girls' games, and the addition of East's general malaise made it feel like a JV game for the first half, but I was impressed nonetheless.
OK, so much for dispensing with the game quickly. It's like 3 a.m., and I have just enough energy left to apologize again for not being able to cover the Willingboro-RV game Friday night. I'm going to do my best to resist the urge to call the office for the score around 8:30 or so. I'm going to try to post sometime tomorrow afternoon, touching on the following topics: the release of the brackets (always an exciting time), the remaining undecided division races, snow, and the bill that passed the NJ assembly regarding NJSIAA ticket pricing. I'll also try to break down the upcoming Gami-Catholic matchup, including what I see as the keys to the game and the players that might make the difference.
But for now, I'm out.
As I suspected, there was apparently some internal CH East turmoil behind the absence of Abiona and Britney Vespe from the Paul VI thrashing. I'm so glad I didn't cover that game, because I kind of wanted to. I'm still not certain what the exact problems were, but Coach Keyack assured me that all is solved now, and the Cougars are moving forward. It took them a while to translate that assurance to the court, but there were certainly flashes of the team they could be. Coach Keyack and I talked about the possibility of some kind of post-cutoff letdown, with the division sewn up and the SJ Group 4 No. 2 seed secure. It's understandable, but certainly not ideal.
A couple of years ago, the Rancocas Valley boys soccer team suddenly caught fire in the second half of the season and went all the way to a state title, and both the players and the coaches attributed it to an unmatched level of discipline that they adopted midstream. The called it "military disciple" and they took it all the way, with old school pre-game calisthenics, even lining their bags up in numerical order. But they all said it wouldn't have worked without the first half of the season's laxity and frivolity. The lesson here being that a team can't expect to play on the edge every day, and there's an art to getting by on 85 percent. The Cougars practiced that art today, but on the heels of the shellacking at the hands of Paul VI, I'm not sure it was exactly what the East coaches were looking for.
Pennsauken was very game today, even though Elise Graham was not only slightly overmatched by Abiona but hurting bad from a tailbone injury. Coach Ciociola said this was her first game back after missing 10, and I didn't realize how much discomfort she was in until I saw her after the game, and she could barely get around. The girls that really impressed, though, was Ashley Thompson. I could see that she's a little raw, but she was the kind of raw that made me think she was a lot rawer not too long ago. Though she clearly showed that she could shoot, steal, handle, rebound, pass and defend, it was her decision-making that got me. For a raw player, she made very, very few mistakes today. I'm not saying she played a perfect game, but the Indians showed a lot of patience in the halfcourt-set, and the times that she pushed the pace were the right times. It didn't make for the insane, breakneck intensity that accompanies many HS girls' games, and the addition of East's general malaise made it feel like a JV game for the first half, but I was impressed nonetheless.
OK, so much for dispensing with the game quickly. It's like 3 a.m., and I have just enough energy left to apologize again for not being able to cover the Willingboro-RV game Friday night. I'm going to do my best to resist the urge to call the office for the score around 8:30 or so. I'm going to try to post sometime tomorrow afternoon, touching on the following topics: the release of the brackets (always an exciting time), the remaining undecided division races, snow, and the bill that passed the NJ assembly regarding NJSIAA ticket pricing. I'll also try to break down the upcoming Gami-Catholic matchup, including what I see as the keys to the game and the players that might make the difference.
But for now, I'm out.
posted by SMc. @ 2:57 AM
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