Delran 42, West Tech 41

This post will also appear on the official C-P site. Feel free to visit there as well. This blog will eventually be phased out, but I'll let you all know when it stops being current.

West Tech might be the best story of the year. Dyette Dillard is really building something at that school, which might turn out to be South Jersey's answer to Bloomfield Tech. Especially with the finalncial crisis that the school district of Willingboro is facing these days, I think a lot of students are going to be looking hard at Westampton Tech as an option, not just for basketball reasons.

The future may belong to these Panthers, but the day did not.

Delran did an excellent job attacking. The aggressiveness of Ally Rodolico and Caitlyn Simmons did a lot to neutralize the physical advantages that West Tech had, and the Panthers' cold shooting did the rest of the job.

Big Joe from Collingswood was in the house, scouting West Tech. He was rightly concerned about the game the Colls might get, should they advance past Buena. He characterized them as "Lindenwold with a couple of 6-footers" and I think that's apt. The guards really attack the basket, and aggression goes a long way in the girls game. I didn't get a chance to talk with Joe afterwards, so I'm not sure what the final analysis was, but I'm sure he'll deliver a comprehensive report to Nancy O'Neill. Dyette and I joked that it was good her team didn't really show Joe everything they had, but I know from talking to him at halftime that he was suitably impressed, and he's certainly seen enough basketball to know what a team is capable of, no matter what it shows over a given 32 minutes.

The end of the game was a little disconcerting to me, with regard to both teams. Delran tried to give the game away with turnovers, and while I felt bad for one girl in particular, they need to take care of the basketball in those situations. West Tech's cold shooting made certain they didn't take advantage of those mistakes, but what really confised me was the defenses they were in late. Down a point in the last two minutes, they were in a sagging box-and-one zone with Rodolico isolated. Now Rodolico was having a great game, but if I'm Delran I'll take that trade every time. They threw the ball away anyway, but I know a lot of teams that have seen that defense and never given the ball back to West Tech.

One strange thing: Delran was absolutely perfect from the foul line, 11-for-11, until the last minute, when Simmons missed the first end of a one-and-one. How ironic would it have been if the Bears would have lost the game at the line after nailing them all night long. I'll give Simmons a pass this time because she was money in a game I saw earlier in the season, against Cinnaminson, and I'm glad it didn't come back to bite the Bears.

As I mentioned I was going to do, I accompanied one of our interns to the Hammonton-Pennsauken game earlier in the day. There's some insurance-related reason that interns can't go anywhere by themselves, but it's a good way for us to make sure they're getting as much as possible out of their time with us, I guess. We decided to do the story on Elise Graham, so I was hoping for a good game out of her. After a slow start she came alive for 17 points, which was nice.

In my time at the C-P, I've covered tons of Pennauken events, but this is actually the first time I've ever been in the Pennsauken gymnasium. I was digging it. If you've never been, I'd describe it this way: imagine a warehouse, or better yet, a textile factory. Take out all the workers and machinery, replace them with some bleachers, a hardwood floor and some basketball goals and voila. Very industrial. Very cool. I can imagine a night game there -- with some strobe-lit, techno-enhanced introductions -- would be very intimidating to a visiting team. And just think of the nicknames you could come up with for it: the Factory, the Warehouse of Pain, the Sweatshop.

It was laid back afternoon at the old factory. That is, except if your name was Katie Piekielksi. Her shot wasn't on, but she played a great, hard-nosed game nonetheless. She made some great passes, grabbed some huge boards, and spent a lot -- and I do mean a lot -- of time on the floor. She even did a somersault once after getting a rebound that she hadno business getting.

It was good to talk to her after the game, if only to know that she wasn't hurt. She and the Blue Devils have a game against Kingsway coming up in the first round of the upcoming SJ G3 playoffs, and I'd bet that her duel with Jessica Gerald will be a bargain at twice the price. I haven't figured out the coverage strategy for the opening round of the playoffs yet, but I certainly wouldn't mind seeing that one.

I'm going to try to get down to the Timber Creek-Washington Township game early tomorrow afternoon, and do my Monday Sicth Man column on the Chargers, who lost teammate Brittany Washington to a car accident a year ago today (meaning Friday). Then I'll head to Sterling Collingswood to see if the Panthers can keep pace in the Colonial. If they win, I'll cover their game with Heights on Thursday. If not, I'll find some other game to see. Sunday I'm going down to Ventnor, though I realized after posting yesterday that the Eustace-Mainland game had been shuffled out of existence. I'm not certain which game I'm going to actually cover, but there are a ton of events in the area that day across all sports, so we're not sending a photographer down. That means I don't have to decide until I get down there. I may well end up covering Eustace-Vianney in the same time slot.

Lastly, I got a call from Greg Goodwin confirming the big game with CC on Wednesday night at 6. It should be a great atmosphere down at Gami, which happens to be another of SJ's interesting gyms. It's really big, and kind of dark and shadowey, which adds to the drama. I've never seen it even close to full, but the wrestling folks tell me that when it is, it really rocks. We'll find out, because I've spoken to a bunch of people who are planning on going down to watch. Hopefully, though, this is only Round 1, with the second round to come in the TOC.