Out & About: St. Paul Central/Mpls South

#7 posting 2.24.2007
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

TWIN CITY GAME
ST. PAUL CENTRAL minutemen 83,
MINNEAPOLIS SOUTH tigers 64

For the second time in three years these two teams have met to decide the best team in the Twin Cities. Today it was #1 St. Paul Central making a clear statement with an 83-64 win at #2 South. Last year South won at Central 80-72. The year before Central won at South 53-48.

As befitting a #1 vs #2 battle the gym was packed. And it was packed early even with the nasty winter storm bearing down. In fact they had to close the doors. They also had to refund some fans money due to no room. There was a who's who of coaches and teams in attendance with heavy concentration among sections 3 and 6 (Central and South's sections). Other top teams also came to see the spectacle. Here is a sampling of those in the house: Apple Valley; Benilde-St. Margaret; Bloomington Kennedy; Burnsville; Centennial, Champlin Park; Cretin-Derham Hall; DeLaSalle; Eastview; Hopkins; Mpls North; Mpls Roosevelt; Mpls Southwest; Park-Cottage Grove; Tartan; and Woodbury. I am sure there were others.

If you saw the first five minutes of the game you might not have believed either team could get past 50. Of the first 23 possessions combined only four found the bottom of the net. South had a drought of 7 and was 2/12, or 16.7 pp100, Central was 2/11 or 18.2. Both teams were keyed up for the big game and the adreneline was flowing. South turned the ball over six times in their first eight possessions. Central took better care of the ball, but had similar results. South had their last lead at 6-5 on a pull up by Ephesia Holmes. The last tie occurred at 9 on another Holmes pull up. South then went dry for five possessions while Central found their rhthym. They were 4/5 and had a 9-0 burst to take an 18-9 lead. At the 4:10 mark both teams were in a groove. Central had a five possession scoring string, South a four string. Abby Gust nailed two consecutive 3s from the right and left corners for Central. South's Tayler Hill didn't score until 3:45 left in the half and she did that at the line. SPC led at the half 41-24. For the half SPC had 15 second chance points, South had 5 second chance points. SPC's Angel Robinson had 10 at half.

The 17 point lead did get cut away to 50-40 with 13 minutes to go after a drive by Tayler Hill. South opened with a 16-9 run. Hill snapped out of her first half funk with 12 points in the run. Central soon reasserted themselves and led 57-42. Robinson had five points in the 7-2 run. South never closed the gap. Central had an answer for every score South produced. Both teams, as cold as they started were smoking in the second half. As a whole both teams were firing away at a .554 floor %. 82 points were scored in that half in 74 possessions--a 110.8 pp100 for both teams. Hill had 20 second half points for South. Robinson had 17 second half points.

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

ST. PAUL CENTRAL
STARTERS
Angel Robinson 27, 22, 122.7, .591 point guard. what sets her apart from the other point guards is the power. She is strong, has great vision, delivers the ball, involves the whole group. has great jumping ability. Can take it to the glass. and hit the 3. defensively is a strong suit. She didn't get the initial steal, but her teammates were able to make the steals due to her harrassing nature. playing with authority. RF: not much today to nit pick about but fouls are always the danger here.
Theairra Taylor 9, 11, 81.8, .455 long limbs on the perimeter make it hard to pass or see. quick alert, good jumper. runs the floor. had a great interior pass to Buford. RF: fouls
Kiara Buford 10, 13, 76.9, .308 another long limbed perimeter defender. anticipates well. runs the floor. has 3 range. RF: fouls
Georgie Jones 16, 12, 133.3, .667 post player. strong hands, is stronger on the defensive boards now. RF: fouls
Megan Howard 9, 4, 225.0, 1.000 inside player. Strong, has a nose for the ball. aggressive on offensive boards. RF: fouls
BENCH
Ebony Black 4, 8, 50.0, .250 a jolt from the bench. lefty. creative. RF: flops on the floor too much. every bump she ended up on the floor. needs to work on her balance. exposed ball after rebound. picked up a charge.
Abby Gust 8, 3, 266.,7, 1.000 3 point shooter. RF: has a tendency to take rush the shot.
Cyonna West 0, 2, 0.0, .000 quick defender. RF: smaller

MINNEAPOLIS SOUTH
STARTERS
Jenny Houle 3, 4, 75.0, .250 3 point shooter. RF: needs to become stronger, quicker defensively. needs to develop drive game.
Tyisha Smith 9, 8, 112.5, .625 quick guard, has speed. drew fouls. RF: small
Tayler Hill 24, 31, 77.4, .355 can score, creates off the dribble. RF: passing needs to sharpen up; ball handling against bigger physical players needs to improve. was missing deep on shot. defensively was not as much as a factor as she was in North II.
Ephesia Holmes 17, 21, 81.0, .429 has no fear. strong, has decent jumping ability. has good pull up jumper. RF: size
Gabrielle Roberts 4, 3, 133.3, .667 inside player. had good positon. RF: outsized.
BENCH
Taquoia Hammick 0, 1, 0.0, .000 big post. RF: limited experience
Hannah Cheese 6, 4, 150.0, 1.000 tough nosed post. gets after ball. RF: size for position.
Maresha Anderson 1, 2, 50.0, .500 RF: strength

TRENCH PLAYER
Angel Robinson

BY THE NUMBERS
St. Paul Central 83, 75, 110.7, .520
Mpls South 64, 74, 86.5, .446
made 3s: SPC 6, MS 2
made fts: MS 26, SPC 9
bench: SPC 12, MS 7
If they have theme songs for teams SPC's should be "weapon of choice" by Fatboy Slim. "you can go with this...or you can go with that." They can attack from a variety of positions and angles. They can hit the 3, they can drive, they can post, they have weapons on the bench. Many were questioning the diet of cupcakes and twinkies and how SPC would perform against a team with a winning record (Central's last game against a +.500 team took place on Dec. 28). Those questions have been answered emphatically. I have charted SPC three times this year and each time they have improved their offensive execution measured by pp100 from 69.1 to 94.6 to now at 110.7. And the scary thought for the rest of the AAAA teams is there is room for improvement yet.
And still I wonder why USA today, Max Preps, et al. don't have Central in the top 25 nationally. They have two players that have already committed to D1 programs: Robinson-Marquette; Buford-Minnesota; and Black is getting attention; with Jones and Taylor clearly headed in that direction. Howard could also make that move.
South's offense comes off the dribble. They also used the free throw line and dominated that aspect of the game with 26 made free throws. But the offense revolves around penentration with out any movement of the other players, except maybe a ball screen. South is guard oriented and they were matched up against guards that were just as quick, but they were up against stronger and larger guards. The pressure caused turnovers due to soft, lazy, lollipop passes that were snatched. South never got their transition game out of the shed. This is the fourth time watching South and this was the lowest pp100, in fact their first pp100 under 100 at 86.5.

DEFENSIVE WRAPS
d rebounds, steals, forced turnovers and blocks leading to possessions
ST. PAUL CENTRAL
Georgie Jones 12
Theairra Taylor 6.5
Kiara Buford 6
Ebony Black 3
Megan Howard 3
Angel Robinson 2.5
Cyonna West 1
totals: 34

MPLS SOUTH
Gabrielle Roberts 9
Hannah Cheese 5.5
Ephesia Holmes 4.5
Tayler Hill 3
Tyisha Smith 3
Maresha Anderson 3
Jenny Houle 2
Taquoia Hammick 2
totals: 32

Also: the national anthem singer was Jazmine Carlisle who I have known since she was a toddler. I am getting old.
The best half time show of the year were a pair of dance teams from both schools. The crowd didn't evaporate at half.

Next up; tomorrow morning.