CH East 60, AC 41

For the second day in a row, I watched a great career end in frustration. Yesterday it was Erin Floyd and today, Tasha Cannon. For the sake of Jordan Sykes and Cheslea Conner, I hope the trend doesn't continue.

Everything was going to plan today until Cannon picked up her third foul six minutes in. The way East played, it would probably have been a great game. Vespe played great, Abiona and Tejada as well. As Laurie Carter said, "They made all the shots they needed to make."

Tejada has some attitude, which I really like. East coach Kim Keyack pointed out that a little edge is valuable in a points guard, and I think that's true. I saw a couple of moments during the game, way before it was decided, that Tejada was jawing with the AC guards, and she played a very emotional game, in the best possible sense. What I mean is that she used her anger contructively. For example, over his career Tiger Woods has been like twice as likely to make a birdie right after bogeying a hole. Tejada seemed like she was twice as likely to make a steal or can a three right after she got the ball stolen or was burned for a hoop. And she gave a little better than she took today.

Player by player, I wasn't unimpressed with Atlantic City today. In fact, I thought the 10 minutes the Vikings spent without Cannon in the first half were pretty close to the best I've seen that supporting class play. They just had a lot of trouble solving Abiona's interior D. The last time I covered AC, the win over Trenton Central, a reserve named Monique Garcia was a bolt from the blue in the season half, and she was even more today. She and Aliyah Montague each had a drive and a basket that was pretty awesome, and Garcia might have been the quickest non-Cannon player on the court today.

Anyway, it's sad to think I'll never get to see Tasha play for AC again, though I'm sure I'm far from alone in that sentiment. She seemed pretty upset, and I didn't get a chance to talk to her, which is kind of a shame for a couple reasons. The first is that she's a trip to talk to, and not in a bad way. Some kids are very honest and you have to protect them from what they say. But Cannon is honestly a nice girl, with a cool personality. I guess all those questions about having to carry her team on her back have taught her to take the high road without even thinking about it, even now that her team doesn't need the kid gloves so much anymore.

But there's another reason it would have been good to talk with her. At halftime, I got a visit from Shannon Gantt's cousin, who said that the Woodbury junior would be willing and even excited to play a game of one-on-one against Cannon, fulfilling the curiosity of the SJ basketball community. He said she'd planned on going to watch the Al Carino game anyway, and was looking forward to the possibility of the challenge. Now that Cannon's season is over, it's time to take up that drum beat again to try to get this thing done. I'm not certain how much actual legwork would have to be done, as far as getting the permission from all the right people, but I think it's a win-win for everybody. If publicized correctly -- and I can take care of that -- it certainly couldn't hurt attendance at one of the SJ Basketball Club's biggest fund-raising events.
Who knows, it could even start a little tradition.

In other action, congratulations to Haddonfield, Haddon Heights and Absegami for getting through to the sectional finals as well, and especially to Rancocas Valley and Bishop Eustace for pulling upsets. Chelsea Cole messed around and got a triple double tonight, lifting the Red Devils into a showdown with Trenton Central. Wouldn't it be awesome if there were two all-area publid state semis, in Group 3 and Group 4. Eustace stunned St. Rose Belmar tonight, so in conjuction with the demise of Sacred Heart, there goes the perennial big dogs in Group B. It may be Trenton Catholic's year, but BE is playing great basketball and Dom Reitano has himself on a short list for SJ Coach of the Year. I haven't thought hard about who else might be on that list, but he'll certainly get some consideration.

Before I sign off until tomorrow, I wanted to thank Andre Watson and especially Charlie Sprang for covering games tonight. At this time of the season, every game is worthy of special attention, and every one that gets it helps my peace of mind. Also a big thank you to Jen Rybacki for the music suggestion. I'll definitely be downloading some Matismayu in the near future.

Speaking of which, what I'm listening to: Coldplay... Otis Redding... Nellie McKay... Jethro Tull... the Magic Numbers... Aimee Mann... the Talking Heads... Barry Manilow (with the shuffle mode it had to happen sometime, the law of averages and all... the song was "I Made it Through the Rain"... at least it wasn't "Copacabana")... Jay Z...