Out & About: Park Center/Stillwater

#8 posting 12.1.2006
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

STILLWATER TOURNAMENT SEMIFINALS
PARK CENTER pirates 51, STILLWATER ponies 40

This was a break neck game with balls getting kicked all over the place, not a lot of whistles being blown, and not an artistic creation. But it was an interesting contest all be it flawed. To give you the idea how fast it was, I charted the MG/Edina game with the use of two pages per half, with space left over. In this one the papers went on to 3. The first half both teams were on target for the 90s with 46 possessions.

This game had host Stillwater in the lead at 4-1 early, but then fell into a 13 possession hole, with six turnovers in the mix. Park Center was more aggressive on offense with 13 steals, but they didn't score either because they were too out of control coming down in transition, or had bad angles on their shot. PC led 18-16.

PC led throughout the second half. PC built it up early to 30-21. Stillwater closed to 30-26 when another Jill Zelinsky scored the old fashioned three point play and then scored again in the paint. This put the margin back to a 9 point game. With 7 minutes to go twin sister Jamie dropped two free throws to push it the lead to 37-26. Stillwater still was fighting and clawed back to close the gap to 42-37 with 1:20 left. In fact in the last 10 possessions of the game both teams scored 7 times. That wasn't how most of the game was played.

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

PARK CENTER
STARTERS
Jengeih Tamba 4, 12, 33.3, .250 an athlete, active quick, anticipates on defense. defense is strength. moves without the ball. RF: offense ball handling, shooting isn't strong. My guess didn't play a lot when younger.
Jamie Zelinsky, 17, 29, 58.6, .310 the player that was the best player on the floor. very active with defense with six steals and five defensive rebounds to lead PC in those categories. understands where to be. nice long limbs. RF: shoots on the move way too much. needs to get her footwork set, balanced and would have better rhthym. I don't like the overeliance on the spin dribble. arm gets to far away from the body. needs to glance down to make sure everything is where it should be. also gets off balance on defense and picks up 80 foot fouls.
Briana Blackhawk 7, 7, 100.0, .429 important in closing out game. rebounds. scored five points in the last few possessions of the game to keep PC in the lead. RF: smaller guard.
Brooke Harris, 0, 1, 0.0, .000
Ashley Fischer, 0, 3, 0.0, .000 big post road block. would be great at setting screens away from the ball. RF; can't catch and shouldn't be put in a spot to receive the ball until she can do something with it.
BENCH
Jill Zelinsky, 10, 13, 76.9, .308 twin sister of Jamie. can hit the 3. also posts up, but I wouldn't call her a post. flashes of great plays. RF: not consistent. Defensively a reacher. too high.
Chelsia Hooker, 4, 8, 50.0, .250 a tough kid that gives good minutes. decent pull up jumper. RF: size
Jenny Block, 0, 1, 0.0, .000
Megan Endresen, 9, 6, 150.0, .667 crashes the offensive boards. in when it mattered. RF: needs to be get better ball handling skills.
Ashley Burge, 0, 8, 0.0, .000
Lauren Brennen 0, 1, 0.0, .000

STILLWATER
STARTERS
Alyssa Van Klei, 7, 16, 53.1, .250 moves without the ball. works the boards. RF: needs to cut down on turnovers. have better balance on shot.
Abbie Selmecki, 4, 15, 26.7, .133 post player. RF: needs to deliver more from the blocks.
Melissa Bishop, 2, 7, 28.6, .143 a tough kid. dove into the stands for a ball. does grunt work. RF: not a big offensive threat.
Maggie Lopac, 12, 19, 63.1, .316 their most aggressive player. looks to drive, baseline if open. RF: aggressive also in picking up charging calls.
Mara Syman, 6, 12, 50.0, .250
BENCH
Kelsey Agrimson, 0, 6, 0.0, .000
Rachel Fosse, 1, 3, 33.3, .333
Ashley Nichols, 6, 10, 60.0, .300
Brooke Sahli, 2, 2, 100.0, .500

TRENCH PLAYER
Megan Endresen. If you need my definition of what a trench player does, go back and read the week that was and the week will be last Sunday. I know she only had six possessions, but she was playing pretty good minutes.

BY THE NUMBERS
Park Center 51, 90, 56.7, .278
Stillwater 40, 90, 44.4, .233

Yikes! 90 nine-zero possessions. A .278 floor % and winning. This just wasn't artistic basketball. It was like watching a car careening down the hill on a icy winter day when the break lines have been tampered with. 78 rpm was way to fast for this crowd. They needed to slow it down to 33 1/3.

Next up: tomorrow morning