Out & About: St. Paul Central/Hopkins

#5 posting 11.24.2006
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

PAT PATERSON MEMORIAL
THANKSGIVING TIP-OFF
HAMLINE TOURNAMENT
ST. PAUL CENTRAL minutemen 57, HOPKINS royals 51 overtime

#1AAAA St. Paul Central survived a huge scare against #3AAAA Hopkins in the marquee match up at the Hamline tournament. Both teams sputtered and spun their wheels on offense all night. Central couldn't finish the break until getting their mojo late in the game. SPC trailed by 10 with five minutes to go in regulation. The big break for Central came when Caitlin Rowland fouled out with 2:20 to go in regulation. They outscored Hopkins 13-3 the last five minutes and then won in overtime 57-51.

Central with their 93ppg line up had problems getting on the same page. Offensively there was standing and watching. Passes were thrown with too much mustard and it was offensive foul night with 9 for both teams combined.

SPC led 7-4 when Jenna Lillemoe knocked down a three to tie it. That started a 12 possession drought for SPC, five of which ended in turnovers. Hopkins scored on three of those possessions, but only led 13-7 at that point. There were no massive droughts like that, but neither team could take advantage and play clean on offense. Hopkins led 23-17 at half.

Hopkins opened the second half with a 1/12 possession string while Central scored four points on their first possession. Robinson scored the lay up and then missed her free throw. Jones was there to put in the miss. Later Central tied it at 27. Caitlin Rowland took over and played almost flawlessly as she handled the ball on the press, finished drives. and canned her free throws to the tune of 16 points in the second half. The almost part was due to foul problems. Hopkins led 35-27 with 7 minutes to go when Central kicked it into gear. Hopkins matched them. In the space of 13 possessions both teams all of a sudden were getting the job done on offense. Hopkins scored on six straight possessions. The problem was they only squeezed three points off of three of those possessions as they missed the back end of the free throws. Rowland picked up #5 with 2:20 to go. Howard made one, but a lane violation took away the other. Hopkins didn't score their last four possessions of the regulation with two turnovers. Central also stumbled with two offensive fouls on charges. Players were trying to do way too much. Hanna Muege drove in and was swatted by Buford. It was off to the races with Black getting the loose ball to Robinson and back to Black for the basket and one on a foul by Lillemoe. Black canned the free throw to tie it at 46. Central had one last crack with .7 seconds to go, but a Robinson hanger missed.

Both teams missed on their opening overtime shots, but Robinson scored first for Central on a defensive rebound and drive right to the basket. Black scored on the leaner, and then Black hit her trey from the right side to make it 53-46. Hiebert answered that right back with her own three from up high. Then Robinson tried to force a shot that clearly should not have been attempted unless behind. Hiebert got the rebound and was fouled. What was a four point lead was now 53-51 after the conversions. Robinson was fouled in the back court and converted her tosses. Hiebert missed her shot and Robinson got the rebound and converted again to make it 57-51.

It was a wild and wooly start to the season, if not sharp and clean, but it was the first game of the year after all.

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

ST. PAUL CENTRAL
STARTERS
Angel Robinson, G, 23, 31, 74.2, .323 stepped up and refused to lose. she got up for her own missed shots and redeemed an otherwise subpar performance. defense was not subpar at all. active, anticipates and funnels ball. defense was her saving grace tonight. RF: too many carries, too many charges, too many forced shots. And took a driving shot when up by four in overtime with 37 seconds left. You don't need to pull rabbits out of your hat when up by four then. All you have to do is play nice. complete passes. do easy things, not things that require miracles.
Ebony Black, F, 16, 20, 80.0, .350 had 14 points in the last 7 minutes of regulation plus overtime. benefited from years of playing with Robinson at Johnson. They new each others movement. Made a off balance leaner in the lane and then what proved to be the game winner with a three from the right wing. RF: defensively needs to get more intense. Needs to play the whole game like it was the last 7 minutes and down 10. that got positive attention, but had chances to do easy things and tried to do spectacular things. missed players on the break--not aware or some other reason? exposed the ball after a rebound and was stripped clean.
Kiara Buford, F, 7, 9, 77.8, .333 smooth. RF: was invisible. never in rhythm. without the transition game gone points were hard to come by. defensivley got beat back door and too vertical on defense.
Georgie Jones, C, 4, 6, 66.7, .333 RF: fouls hampered her play. footwork, balance and awareness need to improve. not to mention shooting.
Megan Howard, C, 3, 5, 60.0, .400 physical enforcer. RF: another that sat too long due to foul issues.
BENCH
Theairra Taylor, G, 4, 7, 57.1, .286 explosive. RF: tried to do too much. out of control on the spin, shot was too strong with adrenaline going strong.
DeAubrey Johnson, G, 0, 1, 0.0, .000
Cyonna West, G, 0, 1, 0.0, .000
Shayla Johnson, G, 0, 1, 0.0, .000
Abby Gust, F, 0, 2, 0.0, .000

HOPKINS
STARTERS
Hanna Muegge, G, 0, 12, 0.0, .000 RF: ball handling problems against the intense heat of SPC. needs players to come to her when in trouble. shots were not in sync and rushed.
Ana Garcia, G, 7, 18, 38.9, .278 opened with a two from the corner. RF: but then made her points at the line only. had too many unforced errors.
Caitlin Rowland, G, 18, 19, 94.7, .474 had 16 of her 18 in the second half. Smart, crafty player. picks her spots, had nice baseline drives, technically strong. good decisions. RF: fouling out was the pivot point of the game. Hopkins missed her leadership.
Jackie Hiebert, F, 11, 14, 78.6, .429 workhorse on the boards. showed her range with a 3 in overtime. RF: In overtime had three straight possessions with nothing to add to the scoreboard. She later scored five in the extra session.
Stephanie Sension, C, 6, 8, 75.0, .375 a big presence. moves well, good frame. RF: could get shot off a tad quicker.
BENCH
Rachel Johnson, G, 5, 8, 62.5, .375 nothing flashy, but solid lunchbucket player that did little grunt things that need to be done.
Jenna Lillemoe, G, 4, 3, 133.3, .667 Canned a three to tie it at 7, RF: but never got another trey or field goal for that matter.

TRENCH PLAYER
Angel Robinson, for defensive efforts late. All players involved in this game can produce better offensive numbers.

BY THE NUMBERS
St. Paul Central 57, 82, 69.5, .317
Hopkins 51, 82, 62.2, .341
Key stat is the floor %. Both teams way down with SPC under 32. In fact they were lower than Hopkins. That is because Hopkins was only able to squeeze one point on seven possessions. SPC had one huge 3 in overtime, but to start the second half they made four points on one possession. Robinson made a basket, was fouled, missed the free throw. Jones got the rebound basket. Later on a missed second free throw resulted in a rebound basket from Buford.

Not one player on either team made the gold standards of 100 pp100 or .500 floor %. Credit first game big game jitters with too much adrenline curousing through the blood stream. Hopkins played like Hopkins does: defense limiting SPC to one shot; taking away the transition game. They need to work on the ball handling issues and fouls.
Central has to get much more movement in their offense. Robinson driving and kicking out will work against most teams, but Central's half court offense was anemic. without scoring their is no full court press, and Central makes a lot of coin off that part of the game.

To illustrate the Central potential ---on their last 22 possessions scored 30 points 136.4 pp100 and .636 floor %. So for the first 60 possessions they were stuck in the muck and mire with 45.0 pp100, and a frigid .233 floor %.

Next up: tomorrow morning.