CWood 41, Haddons 24

Thanks very much to Collingswood announcer and all-around astute observer Geoff Filinuk, who gave me a coupon for a free car wash when I walked in the gym this evening. Yes, my car is still covered in Mt. Holly mud. I've been waiting for a rainstorm to wash it away but now I don't have to. Now if I could only get around to cleaning out all the junk on this inside of my car...

Anyway, this was my first chance to see Collingswood since catching the last few minutes of a lopsided loss to Hammonton back at the Boardwalk Classic during the holidays. And I guess I didn't realize until the opening introductions how young these girls are. The Panthers started two juniors and three sophomores today, and they did pretty much everything but shoot well.

The defense was the most impressive thing, though. Even without Katie Feeley (who has some serious quick feet when healthy) the Colls' zone held Haddonfield to a season-low point total, nine fewer than the previous low, 33 in the now-infamous game at Heights. I added up the Dawgs' scores from the rest of the year and it came out to an average of 55.8 points a game coming into tonight. So when Collingswood had a nine-point lead going into the fourth quarter, the Panthers' D made it seem more like a 20-point edge.

Lauren Gregg had a stellar game today, and I can't wait to see more out of her. Brazyl Richardson seemed very raw to me at first, but late in the game she showed dome fadeaway touch that impressed. Still, I'd prefer to see a post player finish at the glass than fall backwards, but that takes real confidence. I liked the Crites sisters' games a lot, especially for 10th graders. Barring something catastrophic, Heights will certainly enter next season as the Colonial favorite with five three-year-starting seniors, but I can't wait to see this team develop too. That could turn into a monster rivalry over the next season and a third, with both Colonial and South Jersey Group 2 titles hanging in the balance. If I'm not mistaken, the teams could meet in the sectional semis at Heights this time around, but I'm not going to get into any of that until the brackets are actually released.

I felt bad for Haddonfield because they played hard, Annie Maloney and Laura Gurelian in particular. The Dawgs got some offense going in little spurts, but seeing as they never scored more than eight in any one quarter, those spurts didn't last very long. They managed just eight field goals for the game. It's very, very tough to win that way. On defense, I thought they did a decent job, given the fact that Collingswood knew very well it had an advantage down low. I'd have to go back and check, but I don't think many of the Colls' points were in the paint, especially if you don't count second-chance points. Rebounding, of course, was a real factor in the Colls' favor to about a 3-to-2 ratio. It was wider in the first half, and then Haddonfield started throwing its bodies around some more. Gurelian, again, was a big help. She's not the biggest player on the court by far, and there's no earthly reason she should come up with the number of boards she does, but both times I've seen Haddonfield play a whole game, there she is, hauling in the rebounds. Well done.

I was sitting right by the scorer's table behind the Collingswood bench, and in hindsight I think it was a good thing because the Haddonfield faithful were pretty hard on the officials. One of them -- Annette, I think her name is -- has been following me around lately. She was at Cinnaminson-Holy Cross Friday, then Haddon Township-Sterling the next afternoon, and now Haddonfield-Collingswood. There are officials that I don't see twice in a whole season, and I've run into this one three days straight. She's been solid every time I've watched her, so she's joined the group of officials that I'm happy to see walk in the gym. The other official, Carol, has always been one of those too, but the Haddonfield folks were all over her.

I was actually starting to get a little embarrassed for them, especially because they were calling her out by name. It was kind of an ugly thing. And I was embarrassed on behalf of the players on the floor, too, because their behavior has always seemed cool, the picture of the high road. Everyone else associated with the team has been otherwise. I'm not sure where this persecution complex came from, but when you hail from a school district like Haddonfield, it is not becoming in the least. At the aforementioned Dawgs-Garnets game, I didn't think the refs had a very good night and said so in my post, thus opening up a can o' worms. That was not the case tonight. I thought the officials had a fine night this time. I can remember one play, where Vicki Roddy took a charge and as soon as the call was made my inner voice said, "Good call." And the Haddons bench and bleachers went completely berserk.

Oh well. I've got an evening in the office planned for tomorrow, and then I'll be at Pennsauken-Cherry Hill East watching two teams that got their asses handed to them tonight. I've really been enjoying all the folks from Heights clamoring about the rankings -- I even got a four-page latter about it via "certified mail" today, whatever that means -- but I wonder why so many of them are fixated on Paul VI as being undeserving. Having seen both teams play, I'm not certain the Eagles wouldn't win that game by 20. One person did a position-by-position comparison and only gave PVI one edge in the starting five, which made me actually laugh out loud.

Look. I'm not pushing any team. I want to see everybody's best game every time I go out there because it's more fun that way. And I don't know everything or see everything, and I make plenty of mistakes. But the keyhole logic that people can convince themselves with is constantly hilarious to me. In any case, I just wanted to tell everybody to keep up the good work because it's been a lot of fun.