Out & About: Concordia St.Paul Summer League

#2 posting 6.26.2006
Your Daily Dose of Girls Basketball News & Information

CONCORDIA ST. PAUL SUMMER LEAGUE
Today I traveled to check on the summer league scene. The first stop on the tour was Concordia St. Paul. They play three 13 minutes "mini games" each team is awarded two points for a win and one point for a tie game. Non shooting fouls are worth one point, shooting fouls are worth two points. The only time a foul is shot is in the last minute of the game. There is no fouling out---I think that is because some teams have barely enough for five players.
I arrived late to the game due to two factors: 1. My part timer was having a hard time with the network today. For some reason it was throwing fits and not taking care of information entered. 2. There was construction taking place on 252 headed into Minneapolis. Traffic was down to one lane, and what was a 5 minute ride on that portion became a 20 minute ordeal.

MINNEAPOLIS SOUTHWEST/ST. PAUL CENTRAL
SPC, as has long been rumored, has Theairra Taylor on their squad. Taylor was at Como Park last year. This will add to their potent offensive attack. Also coming to SPC Jessi Bartz from Rochester JM is moving to the district and has enrolled at school. She averaged 3.3 last year at RJM.

I was able to get to the Second Mini game of the St. Paul Central/Minneapolis Southwest contest. SPC won the first game 22-17, but SW took the second game 26-13. It was 6-1 when I got there. SPC's Angel Robinson knocked in a 3 as I got in. She soon added another and SPC led 9-8. SW's Britta Syverson scored on a post up to put SW back on top and they were not to trail again. SPC went into a 7 possession drought to end any hopes for a win in this mini game. At the same time SW ran off five scoring possessions in a row, and 6/7 sequence with a 13-0 run. Fitz had 7 points in the stretch.

In the rubber game SW scored first with Syverson doing the honors. SPC scored on their next three possessions and led 7-2. Abby Gust had a 3, Theiarra Taylor was fouled on a drive for two more and Angel Robinson scored on a put back. Then SW rattled off five straight points in three possessions. Both teams traded leads SW tied it up at 18 with Miller's rebound basket. SPC missed shots on their next two possessions. Fitz grabbed the rebound on West's missed shot and was fouled. That meant she got one point. Later in that same possession Syverson scored on a missed shot by Miller and SW was up 21-18 with under 2:30 to go. West missed another 3 on SPC's next possession. Miller scored on the next SW possession, again on a put back. A time out refocused the energy and Robinson went right to the glass to cut the SW lead to 23-20. Robinson stole the ball, and Abby Gust popped in a shot to cut the lead to 23-22 with 37 seconds left. Miller missed for SW, Robinson got the rebound and was fouled. She missed the one and one situation and Fitz grabbed the rebound and was fouled. She went down to the other end and made both to give SW a 25-22 lead. Johnson's 3 shot at the end bounced off and SW picked up four points in the standings with the win. It was the first time SPC lost in the league.

MINNEAPOLIS SOUTHWEST
STARTERS
Melissa Fitz 14, 12, 116.7, .333 main ball handler, and played with confidence and poise.
#5 2, 4, 50.0, .250 RF: needs to work on ball handling.
Laura Miller 12, 9, 133.3, .667 another power inside RF: time and score situations--took a questionable shot when they were milking the clock.
Britta Syverson 14, 8, 175.0, .875 force inside, made quite a few put backs on the day.
#11 2, 4, 50.0, .250
BENCH
none

ST. PAUL CENTRAL
STARTERS
Angel Robinson 14, 13, 107.8, .462 a dominant player period. RF: needs to finish the free throw opportunities.
Theairra Taylor 6, 7, 85.7, .429 as the new kid on the block was defferrential to the other players. I have seen her take over a game with her Total Package team, Here it looked like she was trying to fit in and not step on anybodies toes.
Shayla Johnson 7, 4, 175.0, .750 banked in a 3.
Abby Gust 7, 5, 140.0, .600 good shooter. RF; needs to step up defensively.
Cyonna West 0, 5, 0.0, .000 defensive stopper RF: suffered from summeritis on defense for most of the game. needs to shoot 1000s of shots to be an offensive weapon.
Mercedes Yarborough 0, 3, 0.0, .000

TRENCH PLAYER
Tonight with the wins Fitz

BY THE NUMBERS
Mpls SW 44, 37, 118.9, .514
StP Central 34, 37, 91.9, .432
If you look at the numbers you may say "wow, what great offensive performances." That would be a mistake. The offenses did what ever they wanted to. When watching this game I was thinking of the Gershwin song "summertime" with the line summertime and the living is easy. That is what the pace, energy, and atmosphere was like. A lazy summer day. The defenses did their imitation of a wet paper bag. Passive zones, brought on by the foul rule perhaps when a foul is penalized by points, were never in the offenses face. The sense of urgency was never really there until the very end of the 3rd mini game.
Also the limitations of the the number crunching was evident in this game. It usually points to who can get the job done, but their is no way a rational person would prefer Johnson to Robinson, or Syverson to Fitz. That is not to rip on the other players, but Robinson and Fitz are the heart and soul of each team.
One other factor in the game. SW was being coached by their new coach Robert Grace, while SPC was player coached.

TARTAN/RIVER FALLS
Tartan swept River Falls in the three mini games 22-9, 21-15, 21-11.
There was never any doubt in game won with Tartan opening with a 7-0 lead. RF did not connect on their first 8 possessions. The game was never in doubt. Tartan had a five possession string late in the game on a 12-2 run. And Run Tartan did.

In game 2, RF held the early lead, but it was never more than 2 points. The game was tight throughout, but Tartan broke away late breaking a 15 all tie. Again Tartan strung four possessions together late to open up a comfortable 6-0 run and a 21-15 win. RF closed with an 0/6 string. Tartan's Haas had 8 points in this mini game.

Game 3 was much like game 1 with Tartan grabbing a 6-0 lead, RF suffering a 8 possession drought. #21 had seven points for Tartan.

TARTAN
no number 2, 7, 28.6, .143
#11 Marni Privratsky 9, 8, 112.5, .375
#25 2, 4, 50.0, .250
#23 4, 5, 80.0, .400
Jenny Hooper 6, 6, 100.0, .500
#3 Lauren Pellowski 7, 9, 77.8, .333
#1 1, 1, 100.0, ???
#21 11, 7, 157.1, .714
#4 5, 5, 100.0, .400
Katie Haas 16, 10, 160.0, .800 as the biggest player, and the player with the most experience you would expect her to dominate. She did that easily. RF: needs to make her moves quickly. too labored once she gets the ball.
Tartan fans---let me know the names of the missing players. Email me--go to the profile.

RIVER FALLS
#33 2, 4, 50.0, .250
#24 5, 11, 45.5, .182
#25 4, 9, 44.4, .222
#35 0, 2, 0.0, .000
#41 6, 7, 85.7, .429
#15 2, 4, 50.0, .250
#10 0, 3, 0.0, .000
#20 2, 4, 50.0, .250
#12 8, 9, 88.9, .444 big guard. tried to get things moving
#44 5, 7, 71.4, .286
#21 1, 1, 100.0, ???
#35 0, 1, 0.0, .000
For you River Falls Fans--if you know the numbers and names let me know. email me from my profile.

TRENCH PLAYER
Katie Haas

BY THE NUMBERS
Tartan 63, 62, 101.6, .452
River Falls 35, 62, 56.5, .258
Never really a mystery. Tartan had the size and speed advantage. In this game both teams brought 10+ players. So what we saw was the wave substitution pattern.
Both winning teams tonight were over the gold standard of 100 pp100, again it was a hot knife through butter with offenses doing what they wanted, well at least Tartan was able to do what they wanted.

CSP STANDINGS
coming into tonight's action
Bloomington Kennedy 22
Holy Angels 22
St. Paul Central 20
Hastings 19
Benilde-St. Margaret's 18
Minnehaha 18
Concordia Roseville 17
Mpls Southwest 16
Mpls South 15
River Falls 14
Richfield 10
St. Anthony 10
Irondale 9
Elk River 9
Park-Cottage Grove 8
Tartan 8
Henry Sibley 4
Hudson 4
Visitation 2
CHOF 2
South St. Paul 1

Championship in the CSP summer league will be Wednesday, July 12 at 8 pm

Next up: tomorrow morning with the general news of the day