Out & About: St. Michael-Albertville/Cambridge-Isanti

#7 posting 1.23.2007
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

ST. MICHAEL-ALBERTVILLE knights 52,
CAMBRIDGE-ISANTI bluejackets 49

STMA held off a rally by Cambridge to pick up a Mississippi 8 conference win.

Cambridge-Isanti had the early lead at 4-0, their largest lead of the game. STMA evened it up with two baskets by Regan Englund, her only two baskets of the night. The last time CI led was at 9-8 with a spinning drive by Tess Milczark. After that CI shut down for 11 straight possessions. STMA seized advantage of the slumbering CI offense by converting on five straight possessions. STMA used that for a 14-0 run. Brittani Wiese had 6 points in the outburst. Natalie Dick and Stacy Hegland each had 4. STMA led 22-9 with 6:30 to go in the half. Then Wiese picked up her second foul and sat the rest of the half. The consequence was CI finished up with a 10-4 run. STMA had a turn in the dry spells with 9. CI also was dry for part of that stretch with another drought of six. But CI did close out the half with four straight scores in the last 1:38. CI missed 7 points at the line in the half and trailed 26-19.

CI continued to stay hot with a 8-2 run to start the half. So, to combine the last part of the first half, and first part of the second half, the CI run was 18-6. That put the score at 28-27, the closest it was to get. It was STMA's turn for a run and they went on a 6-0 run to make it 34-27. CI closed to 34-32 with a 3 from the left corner by Jordan Vavra with under 9 minutes to go. Like a see-saw it was STMA's time for a run and they went up 40-32 on an 6-0 run with 6:22 left. Nicole Steffens knocked down the first four in that run for STMA. CI did again close to 42-38 on Marie Hanson's trey from the right wing with 2:30 to go. STMA would go to the line for the rest of their points for the night. With 57.9 left STMA pushed the lead up to 47-40. CI would score 9 points in the last 57.9 seconds, but it wasn't going to be enough. Kailee McDonald scored with the clock stopped with only one free throw. Wiese was immediately fouled for STMA and she too converted once. Hanson drained a 3 to cut the STMA lead to 48-44. Both teams traded nonscoring possessions. Wiese added two free throws with 32.3 seconds left to make it 50-44. Victoria Ledahl hit a three from the left corner to make it 50-47. STMA went to the line again with Angy Gavere adding one free throw. Reann Carpentier scored on a put back for CI but by this time there was only 2.2 seconds left. Wiese was fouled again, but only converted one. Vavra had a good shot at the three from up top, but it bounce off and STMA survived a 52-49 win.

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

ST. MICHAEL-ALBERTVILLE
STARTERS
Stacy Hegland 8, 10, 80.0, .400 crashes offensive boards. RF: rushes shot and offense.
Lexi Thompson 8, 11, 72.7, .364 post player. fearless inside. had key rebounds and steals late in the game. plays bigger than size. RF: size even now in the post is too small. needs to realize when to challenge bigger players.
Brittani Wiese 13, 17, 76.5, .471 point guard. handled pressure late in the game. converted at the line. active on the defensive boards.
Natalie Dick 8, 13, 61.5, .308 Wiese's favorite target. active defensively. RF: needs to convert on transition. size
Regan Englund 4, 4, 100.0, .500 biggest player, post, athletic. RF: passed to no one a couple of times. fouled out.
BENCH
Angy Gavere 5, 9, 55.6, .333 post player. Rebounded defensively. RF: picked up offfensive foul on moving screen.
Jane Simon 0, 2, 0.0, .000
Nicole Steffens 6, 7, 85.7, .429 hit a pair of shots in the second half

CAMBRIDGE-ISANTI
STARTERS
Jordan Vavra 4, 12, 33.3, .167 point guard. RF: needs to convert at the line. Too deep on free throw. needs to work on footwork and ball handling.
Marie Hanson 15, 14, 107.1, .429 drained three 3s late in the game. crashed offensive boards. long arms mader her effective up top in the 1/2/2 defense in the second half. had energy. RF: shot form needs polish, needs to be aware of lines.
Reann Carpentier 5, 11, 45.5, .182 has 3 range in the left corner. RF: needs to improve ball handling/passing. needs to convert at the line.
Tess Milczark 13, 14, 92.9, .500 post player. physical, aggressive. favors spin. scored off balance, and also when being hit. RF: too high defensively, needs to keep knees bent, needs to chin ball after steals, or rebounds.
Chelsea Browen 0, 1, 0.0, .000 post player. rebounds. RF: offensively not used much.
BENCH
Victoria Ledahl 3, 7, 42.9, .143 made key 3 late in left corner. RF: didn't go after a loose ball when the opportunity was there. When missing shots it was deep.
Laura McLean 2, 7, 28.6, .286 post player. long limbs, RF: needs strength
Kailee McDonald 7, 8, 87,5, .500 aggressive guard, RF; needs patience on offense. rushed things, took shots when numbers weren't right.

TRENCH PLAYER
Brittani Wiese

BY THE NUMBERS
STMA 52, 73, 71,2, .384
Cambridge-Isanti 49, 74, 66.2, .324
made 3s: Cambridge-I 6, STMA 0
made fts: STMA 14, Cambridge-I 11
bench: Cambridge-I 12, STMA 11
As you can see pretty low pp100s and floor %. Part of that is rushing shots on offense. Many possessions lasted four possessions or less. The floor wasn't balanced, there was no weakside rebounding, and ball handling/passing was suspect. I am not prepared to say these teams played the most wicked defense of the year. It has to do with offensive capabilities. Both teams also were not real clean at the line. STMA was at 64%, but CI was even chillier with 44%. CI missed a potential 14 points at the line.

DEFENSIVE WRAPS
d rebounds, steals, forced turnovers, blocks leading to offensive possessions
STMA
Brittani Wiese 10
Lexi Thompson 9
Natalie Dick 8
Angy Gavere 7
Stacy Hegland 4
Regan Englund 3
Jane Simon 1
Nicole Steffens 1
totals: 43

CAMBRIDGE-ISANTI
Marie Hanson 8
Jordan Vavra 6.5
Chelsea Browen 5
Tess Milczark 4.5
Laura McLean 4.5
Reann Carpentier 3
Kailee McDonald 2
Victoria Ledahl 1.5
totals: 35

Next up: tomorrow morning with the parade of states