Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Out & About: St. Paul Humboldt/St. Paul Highland Park

#4 posting 9.25.2007
your daily dose of girls basketball news & information

MYAS FALL LEAGUE
PURPLE DIVISION
ST. PAUL HUMBOLDT hawks 54,
ST. PAUL HIGHLAND PARK scots 32

This was a convocation of the mighty mites. No players on court crossed the 5-8 mark. The Muggsy Bogues wannabees from both teams played with water bug quickness. This week, coincidentally, David Friedman writes in his blog 20second time out about NBA players under 5-8 with only five players playing 8 or more years. In his article he highlights what traits undersized players need to possess to succeed in the land of the giants--paragraph #9 for those that have short attention spans. The fact is a couple of these players in this game have some of the traits Friedman writes about and players like Bogues possessed.

First off Highland only had five players, so no bench meant they were going to get winded. As you can see from the pp100 Humboldt beat the gold standard with a pp100 of 107.8. They did this with their speed/quickness in transition and their harassing defense. The Hicks sisters are the motor that revs up Humboldt. The Hawks scored on six straight possessions to grab a 14-4 lead and the game was never in doubt. On top of that their defense held Highland to six straight stops, five of which were turnovers. All in all Humboldt had a defensive string of 1/11. On offense the Hawks used their quickness to penetrate, dish and deliver. McDonald and Laroque combined for 21 first half points, many on passes from the Hicks sisters. Leading the charge for Highland was Malika Wiley who scored 9 points by halftime, 7 on second chancers. It was 33-15 at half.

Humboldt cooled off somewhat in the second half, but their defense still delivered a string of stops with a run of six straight early. The end result was a 54-32 Humboldt win in the clash of the non Titans.

photos: #1 Annessa Hicks is air borne with a snappy pass to a teammate on the right wing. #2. Ayana Hicks launches a three for Humboldt. photos by kja

ST. PAUL HUMBOLDT
RF: for all---size, all could get stronger
STARTERS
Hutchinson
8, 8, 100.0, .375 has 3 range. knows when to back cut pressure.
McDonald 15, 12, 125.0, .583 Humboldt's post player. not afraid of mixing it up. scored five points at the line.
Ayana Hicks 10, 11, 90.9, .455 scored in transition, quick, aggressive. good instincts, good court awareness. has style and flare. RF: tries to do too much at times forcing passes, taking too many dribbles, or forcing shots.
Annessa Hicks 8, 8, 100.0, .375 played with moxy, understands game and hustles to balls. can distribute. 3 range. rebounds on both ends. exciting in the open court
Katie Larocque 14, 9, 155.6, .667 scored most of her points on back cuts, especially out of bounds under basket. effective and efficient. Had a pair of 3s.
BENCH
Cooper
0, 2, 0.0, .000
S Paul 0, 1, 0.0, .000

ST. PAUL HIGHLAND PARK
STARTERS
Brooke Laflo
0, 9, 0.0, .000 ball handling, vision, and decision making need improvement.
Janessa White-Smith 5, 12, 41.7, .250 has some strength inside. physical
Leah Smith 7, 9, 77.8, .333 3 range, handled ball a majority of time
Malika Wiley 15, 11, 136.4, .636 left handed. aggressive inside. had 11 points on second chancers in the game.
Miriam Mohammed 5, 9, 55.6, .222 hit a three.
BENCH
None

TRENCH PLAYER
Katie Larocque for putting up the numbers.

BY THE NUMBERS
St. Paul Humboldt
55, 51, 107.8, .471
St. Paul Highland Park 32, 50, 64.0, .300
made 3s: Humboldt 4, HP 2
made fts: HP 8, Humboldt 7
bench: HP 0, Humboldt 0
Humboldt clocked in at 126.9 pp100 in the first half, only 88 pp100 in the second half. It would be a mistake to think Humboldt only has two players. The others also delivered and could shoot.

DEFENSIVE STOPS
HUMBOLDT

McDonald 7
Annessa Hicks 5
Hutchinson 4
Ayana Hicks 4
Katie Larocque 4
Cooper 1
totals: 25

HIGHLAND PARK
Leah Smith 7
Jenessa White-Smith 3
Malika Wiley 3
Miriam Mohammed 3
Brooke Laflo 2
totals: 18

Next up: tomorrow morning. Also tomorrow another o&a with Chaska vs Mankato West