Out & About: Lakeville North/Apple Valley

#5 posting 11.28.2006
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

LAKEVILLE NORTH panthers 58, APPLE VALLEY eagles 46

#9 AAAA Lakeville North ruined Apple Valley's new coach Lynn Dahled's debut with a 58-46 Lake Conference victory at LN. The towering presence of Cassie Rochel impacted both ends of the floor. AV was stymied with LN's inside game. "Nails (Sygulla) & the Rail (Rochel)" put LN in the driver's seat.

AV started off the game with a 7-0 lead. Two of those possessions resulted in three points, one behind the arc from Shannon Thompson, the other was an old fashioned three on a lay up & one from Kale Johnson. LN started off the night with a seven possession drought. Passing execution, usually too high, and clangers led off for LN. AV last lead came at 13-11 on another steal and layup this time by Cassie Hubler. Then AV shut down for 11 possessions, seven of the possessions ended up in missed shots. LN didn't really exploit the situation with as they were stuck in an 8 possession drought, five of which were turnovers However they did take the lead on Cassie Rochel shot from 8 feet out. AV never fully recovered from the drought. In their last 25 possessions they only scored three times. LN outscored them during the stretch 20-5 and led 27-16.

AV did have better flow in the second half cutting the lead to 31-27 after a four possession scoring burst, a 7-0 run on a steal and lay up by a Thompson steal & lay up. LN took an immediate time out and righted itself with a Rachel Banham trey from the top of the key. The lead soon climbed back to ten points. AV had one more gasp as they closed to 41-37 on a Hubler triple. LN scored three possessions in a row with a pair of free throws by Kaiya Sygulla and four points from Rochel. The rest of the night LN maintained the lead. After the 3:20 mark LN scored on four of their six possessions, all at the line, all by Sygulla. LN picked up the Lake conference win 58-46.

NUMBERS EXPLAINED
player, points, possessions, pp100, floor %

LAKEVILLE NORTH
STARTERS
Cassie Crego, 0, 5, 0.0, .000 in for defense RF: not aware, not an offensive concern, no follow through on shot. also fouled out. reached on defense too much.
Casey Radcliffe, 6, 14, 42.9, .214 aggressive to the basket, has a decent hesitation dribble, was in Hubler's face all night. RF: offensively passes a bit too far, too high (except for Rochel)
Jamie Montgomery 0, 2, 0.0, .000 RF: not much to report
Kaiya Sygulla, 18, 21, 85.7, .429 point guard, tough aggressive kid, "nails" delivered late at the line. initiates contact. strong competitor. good defender. RF: shot goes off the back rim, and a couple of times didn't hit iron. had no angle to pass into post, passes richocet off the lights, body careens out of control, forces issues into traffic. square pegs in round holes. but still a gamer and needs to be on the floor.
Cassie Rochel, 16, 13, 123.1, .692 big time player. "rail" still improving, inside presence intimidated Steele. Good feet, great hands, nice touch. good blocking instincts. doesn't foul as I have seen others do. smart on how to block. can score in transition. RF: needs to get stronger and will.
BENCH
Ashley Prather 0, 5, 0.0, .000 strong frame. good rebounder. RF: needs to work at the free throw shot.
Rachel Banham 10, 9, 111.1, .444 thin diaper dandy (class of 2011). made big shots, has feel for the game. good vision when dribbling, crisp passing, not afraid of contact. RF: needs to increase strength.
Kristi Levin, 0, 1, 0.0, .000
Michaela Goris, 8, 5, 160.0, .600 canned two 3s, including one with an and one, RF: weak on skip passes and passing technique in general

APPLE VALLEY
STARTERS
Shannon Thompson 6, 13, 46.2, .231 point guard. RF: needs to take over fully. not aware of time score at the end of the half. exposes the ball.
Kale Johnson, 9, 10, 90.0, .400 anticipates on defense. likes the short corner on her shot. RF: needs to improve ball handling/passing decisions. gain strength. play with authority
Cassie Hubler, 10, 19, 52.6, .263 a good shooter if open. RF: is forced to do more this year, including guarding Sygulla. All this takes its toll on her shot. She never was free & clear, and she has to expend energy helping to bring the ball up, her passes tended to sail. defensively she needs to be low, and Sygulla gets real low. picked up too many fouls as a result and fouled out.
Woodson, 5, 12, 41.7, .167 RF: shoots first, asks questions later. without keeping follow through.
Christina Steele, 8, 14, 57.1, .357 post player, good strong frame, passes well out of post. RF: faded from contact with Rochel. too many fouls; when swarmed traveled. passed to a player not paying attention.
BENCH
Erica Gress, 8, 7, 114.3, .714 in the right spot in the blocks, uses her body to protect the ball, not afraid of contacts. RF: Needs to finish at the line. she could have had four more points. needs to work on speed/quickness.
Teresa Lesch, 0, 0, 0.0, .000

TRENCH PLAYER
Cassie Rochel, easily

BY THE NUMBERS
Lakeville North 58, 75, 77.3, .373
Apple Valley 46, 75, 61.3, .320
3s: LN 3, AV 2
FT made: LN 19, AV 14

Both teams had much better second halves. LN checked in with 69.5 pp100 in the first half and 85.0 in the second half. AV zoomed from 39.0 pp100 to 88.2.

AV was playing its first game and the jitters and nerves did come through in the first half. AV has new leadership on the perimeter and they didn't really like the pressure. LN's defense was tight in the half court limiting AV to only three field goals in the first half, four in the second half off their initial defense. AV never really shook LN. With Rochel in the middle the inside game evaporated.

AV was trying to pass too long, players were going away from the ball on the press, not coming to the ball. AV also needs to be stronger with the ball.

TEAM CASSIE
LN started three Cassie/Casey derivitives. Throw in AV's Cassie and four on the floor had the Cassie/Casey moniker.

INJURY
The game was delayed when a LN cheerleader hurt her knee. She was in the corner doing a cheer during a time out in the first half, but collapsed. No word on her status.

Next up: tomorrow morning.